Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-11-11
FANNY CROSBY, BLIND HYMNIST
How the Author Of Safe in the Arms Of
Jesus, Has Written Her Songs.

How the Author Of Safe in the Arms of
| Jesus, Has Written Her Songs.
Among the cottages at Ocean Grove
each summer can be seen a unique and
interesting old lady, whose name is
known in Sunday-school and church
circles the world over, and who can
ay that she has more hymns to her
credit than any mortal, living or dead.
Her eyes have been sightless since her
babyhOod, II years ago, the effects of
some maltreatment. She is, too, a
frail, wee creature, tipping the scales
at about 100 pounds, and yet, says the
New York Times, despite this lifelong
Ilnfirmity, Fanny Crosby has made a
generous competence and an enduring
name by composing, since 1864, over
1000 Sunday-school hymns. Her
versatility is wellnigh incredible. Her
pious muse is always ready, and can
work without meals or sleep or any
of that spirit-mOving sentiment sup
posed to govern the verse-maker.
They tell of her that one day Will
lam H. DOane, the composer, rushed
into her poet:cal laboratory, satchel in
hand, on the way to catch a train. He
had 20 minutes to spare, and wanted
la hymn written to set to music before
he left. The time had not expired
before Miss Crosby had dashed off one
.of the best-known hymns Of all her
productions, Safe in the Arms of Jesus.
No modern hymn has circumnavigated
the religious globe more thoroughly
than this one, or been translated into
more modern tongues. By the way, it
lis her own favOrite, possibly because
of the way it was railroaded through
her brain.
Miss Crosby's memory is astonish-
ing. Many portions Of the Bible she
knows by heart Before the age Of
10 she had committed to memory the
books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers and the four gospels, and she
can quote from her own favorite
authors by the ream. Equally Won
derful is her sense of touch. She can
always tell the names of her intimate
friends by a mere shake of the hand,
and people she has seldom met and
knows but slightly can be identified
by the voice.
Fanny Crosby was born in South
East, Putnam county, n. Y, in March,
1920 When she was a child Of eight
her parents removed to Ridgefeld, Ct,
where they made their home four
years. In 1885, when Is years of age,
institution for the blind, where she
received a good education and was
teacher for some years She began to
compose crude verses when a girl, but
it was not till she had passed into
the sos, and was spending her vaca-
f.! tions as a teacher at North Reading,
! that she fell into the hands of the late
Prof. George F. Root Tin 2fter years
| the composer of SO many famous war
| songs), and he first turned her talent
| to practical account. They formed a
combination by which he set to music
! the songs she wrote. Some of the
songs produced in that partnership
period are popular and good sellers to
this day, notable Hazel Dell. The
Honeysuckle Glen, Rosalie, the
Prairie Flower, and that perennial
favorite Of all the college boys in New
England Music in the Air. And she
wrote, too, about this time, cantatas OF
The Flower Queen and the Pilgrim
Fathers, which had good deal of pop
ularity in their day, though long since
in the musical junk shop.
Miss Chosby has enjoyed the per-
sonal friendship of no end Of promi-
net men, among them Presidents Tyler
and Van Buren,, Henry Clay, William
H. Seward and Gen. Winfield Scott.
lamong the ancients, and scores of big
wigs of later date. A bit of senti-
ment surrounds her acquaintance with
Mr.. Clay. The great statesman lost
! a beloved son in the Mexican battle
| Of Monterey, and Miss Crosby had
tried to cheer him up by the gift Of q
! few appropriate stanzas, which ap-
peared to touch a chord in the old
ccmmoner's heart, for when, a few
months later, he visited the institution
where the writer was teaching, while
on visit to New York, and when she
was delegated to give him a poetica
welcome, Mr.. Clay very tenderly drew
her arm in his and said, as he wept
Il his is not the first poem for which
II am indebted to this lady. She sent