The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-01
LIFE OF MISS ANTHONY
INCIDENTS OF HER EXPERIENCES
FROM MRS. HARPER's BIOGRAPHY.
Interesting "reminiscences Of Horace
GreeIey-Experiencc i'm Travelling
The Beecher-TiItOn Affair.


than a mere outline of the work, so wide
is its scope and so crowded with events
the life Of the remarkable woman whose
history is told in the two volumes. With
Miss Anthony's public work, however, the
world is more or less familiar and while
the chapters treating of this are important
and contain much not hitherto put into
print that at once becomes a part of the
history of the century, it is perhaps the
incidents of more personal character that
will frs attract the casual reader. A few
of these are here reproduced.
In her seventeenth year Miss Anthony was
sent to boarding school While there she
was fond of writing letters TO her friends
at home and of writing in her diary, a
record that she has most conscientiously and
regularly kept throughout her life. She is
very interpretive and her style very stilted.
on one occasion she writes: Five weeks
have been spent in Hamilton and to what
purpose? Has my mind advanced either in
virtue or literature? l fear that every mo-
ment has not been profitably spent Oh,
may this careless mind be more watchful in
the future! Oh, may the many warnings
which we every day receive tend to make
me more attentive to what is right"
At another time this lamentation occurs:
Received q severe reproof from Deborah
this evening on account of the listlessness
which prevailed in the school, also the i'm
morality of some of the pupils minds OH
that | could feel perfectly clear of ali the
deviations which have been enumerated!
Oh, morality, that L could say possessed
thy charms! oh, the happiness of an inno-
cent mind, would that l could say mine was
So but it is too far from it, think so
much of my resolutions to do better that
even my dreams are filled with these de-
sires"
The sin thus bitterly bewailed consisted
In neglecting to use thee" and "thou" in
addressing her schoolmates. She would
wake up in the night and mourn over it.
In the course of time she became aware
OF her stiff and formal mode of expression
when writing, and this knowledge is sup
posed to have led her. very early in her
written speeches.
After leaving school she became a teacher
anu continued in the occupation for num-
per OF years, being gradually led into public
IRE during this period. At this time she
was rather gay in her tastes. and apparent-
~ not aVerse to attentions from masculine
admirers. She was away from Quaker en-
vlronment for the first time in her life, and
Her letters snow the effects of the new en-
Vlronment The first month"; second day''
expressions are dropped and the plain
abandoned q
more money now than ever before and is at
liberty to use it for her own pleasure A
ioye OF handsome clothes begins to develop
i nave a new pearl straw gyDsy hat - she
writes trimmed in white ribbon with
fringe on one edge and a pink satin stripe
on the other, with a few white roses and
green leaves for inside trimming" The
beaux hover around a certain dominic -
a Widower with several children is Very
attentive; another widower a lawyer, Wis
ltS the school so often as to set all the gos-
SIPS IN tiutter; third is described as
very handsome, sleek a ribbon and the
most splendid black hair | ever looked at"
She takes many drives with still another
through delightful country variegated
with hill and valley, past fields of newly
winding rivulets, with here and there a
large patch of yellow pond lilies" In writ
ing. to relative she urges her to break her
sell OF the miserable habit of borrowing
trouble, which saps all the sweets of life"
AT another time she writes: II have made
up my mind that we can expect only GER
tain amount of comfort wherever we NAV
be, and that it is the disposition of a per-
son, more than the surroundings, that ere
For the winter she buys a broche shawl
for $225O a gray fox muff for IS, a $50
white ribbed-silk hat, which makes the
villagers stare, and plum-colored merino
dreSs a 81 yard, (which everybody admits
to be the sweetest thing entirely" and she
wonders if her sisters do not feel rather
SAD because they are married and cannot
have nice clothes"
The biographer's comment is Miss An
iuOily may ne SAID TO nave been at this time
at the height of her fashionable career"
In June she attends her first circus,
sands Lent & Co, proprietors." About
this time she writes of being invited to a
military ball. and says: MY fancy for at
tending dances is fully satated. / certainly
shall not attend another unless can have
total abstinence man to accompany me, and
not one whose highest delight is to make a
fool of himself"
QUEER HORACE GREELEY.
During her career Miss Anthony, of course,
came into association with many Of the
noted people of the country. Soon after the
beginning Of her public life she visited New
York and was invited to spend an evening
at the home of Horace Greeley. She there
met for the first time Charles A. Dana. Alice
and Phoebe Cary and other literary celebri-
ties of the time. Mr.. Greeley himself opened
the door for them and sent them hunting
through the house for place to lay their
wraps. After a while Mrs. Greeley came
down stairs with a baby in her arms She
had put her apron over its face ard would
not let the visitors look at it because their
magnetism might affect IL unfayora hIv ;,
during the evening she rang a bell and
man servant came in. After a few words
with her he retired and presently brought in
big dish OF cake, one of cheese and a pile
oL pl5tSs, set them on the table and went
out. There was long pause and Mr. Gree
ley said: Well, mother, shall l serve the
cake% Yes, if you want to- So he went
over to the table. took a piece of cake and
one OF the cheese in his fingers putting
them on plate and carrying to each. until
all were served. The guests nibbled at them
as best they could and after a long time the
man brought in a pitcher of lemonade and
some glasses and left the room. Mr. Gree
ley again asked, We'll, mother, shall 1 serve
the lemonade?" Yes, if you want to 4" she
replied, so he flied the glasses, carried to
each separately, and then gathered them up
one at a time, instead of all together on Z
waiter Both Mr.. and Mrs. Greeley were
thoroughly cordial and hospitable both intel
lectuallY great but utterly without social
graces Yet the conversation at their re-
ceptiOns was so brilliant that the most eIe-
gantly served refreshments would have been
an unwelcome interruption.
At another time, when Miss Anthony was
she would marry the same man again If she
We're single, a personal question that most
people would hesitate to ask, but, apparent
~ Mrs. Greeley thought it was all right
Yes" said she, IF 1 wanted a worthy
father for my children, but for personal
comfort should prefer one who did not nut
his feet where / fell over them every time
I went into the room, who knew how TO
eat. when TO go to bed and how to wear his
Clothes
Some years later she had an amusing en-
counter with Greeley. He was not in favor
of woman suffrage. At a convention for re-
vision of the New York State Constitution
he was chairman of the committee on SUE
frage and. as Miss Anthony and Mrs. STAN
ton knew he would seize upon this occasion
to repeat his hackneyed remark, The best
women / know do not want to vote" they
wrote Mrs. Greeley TO roll up big petition
in Westminster. So she got out her old
chaiss and with her daughter Ida dro1-a