The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-22

Extracts From an Unfinished AutObI-
Ography and Diary He began IN
an Idle MOment-He Describes His
Beloved Aunt, Miss Jane Whyte
BRIfOur. Who Is still Living-An
Unpublished Verse Written to Miss
BaIfOur-SteVensOn Tells With At
fectiOnate Gratitude How His De-
voted Nurse, "Cummy," Helped
Him Through Long Nights of suf-
fcring When He Was n Child.
By Isbel Strong.
"Gunty."
Two names were often mentioned in the
Stevenson family: "Aunty'' and Cum
my" a mail was never sent from Samoa
to Edinburgh that did not contain a let
ter for the one and message for the
other "Aunty" is Mrs. Stevensons eld-
est sister, Miss Jane Whyte Balfour,
whose long life has been filled with unset
fish devotion to Others. She is the very
center of the Stevenson-Balfour family,
and though considerably over 50 years of
age, transacts a correspondence that would
appall a much younger woman. For the
family is widely scattered, and the niece
in Demerara. the tea planters wife in In
dia, the young soldiers and sailors Of At
RIGA, or on the high seas, all write regu-
larly home to Aunty; when the Stevenson
family lived in Samoa, one or other of the
members took the pleasant duty of writ
| ing the monthly letters TO the dear reia
tive and friend.
She took a keen interest in all the va
rious adventures of her numerous CORE
spondents-asked us to be sure and write
whether the horse that was hurt got well
or was shot, and had we said four or
| eight lamps hung, in the dining hall? She
also kept us posted about the other MEM
bers of the family. The Demerara niece's
amusing descriptions Of her servants, the
tea planters wifes awful account of the
earthquake, the honors won at Sandhurst
| by the young soldier, were all sent on to
| us with comments in Aunty's own hand.
| She took a pleasure, also, in sending in
! dividual members of the family any little
| compliment received. "A lecture was
| given yesterday about dear LOUIS books,
! and George says the hall was crowded to
! OVERLOOKING" or ian artist called yester-
day and 1 showed him BIS sketches; he
said they were really quite amusing" We
| called them sugar plums.
She also, in the goodness of her generous
| heart, sympathzed with the troubles as
| we'll as the pleasures of her family.
! will never forget a letter from her written
| after I had sent my little son off to Cali
! fornia TO school. had not met her then;
! she was but a name to me, and lived on the
| other side of the world, but she wrote
/ Il could not help thinking of you all day
| on the 18th of April, when you parted from
your little boy. My heart ached for you,
my dear"
| All the children of the family are brought
to see Aunty, and many of them, sent
home from foreign countries where the
| climate was bad or school facilities poor,
owe all they know of home or a mothers
care TO Aunty. Indeed, she has often said
that she has had larger family and
brought up more children than any of her
! married sisters.
In an old blank book where Mr. Steven
son had begun an autobiography, l find
| the following:
IT have mentioned my aunt In her
| youth she was wit and a beauty, very
! imperious, managing and self-sufficient.
! But as she grew up she began to suffice for
| all the family as well. An accident on
| horseback made her nearly deaf and blind
/ and suddenly transformed this willfuf en-
! press into the most serviceable and alma
BILE of women. There were thirteen of the
| Balfours, as oddly enough there were of
the Stevensons Also and the children of
the family came home to her to be nursed
| to be educated, to be mothered from the
! infanticidal climate of India There must
sometimes have been half a score of us
children about the manse; and all were
born a second time from Aunt James ten
| derness. 1t was strange that when a new
| party of these sallow young folk came
| home perhaps with an Indian ayah This
| little country manse was the center of the
world; and Aunt Jane represented Charity.
The text, my mother says, must have been
written for her and Aunt Jane; more are
| the children of the barren than the chill
dren of the married wife"
Her latest charge, now a handsome
| young man, is an officer in the Gordon
! Highlanders, and it was a touching thing
to see his devotion to the little old lady
on the eve of his departure for active serv-
| ice, and / know that whatever betides
that gallant soldier he will send every
mail letter to Aunty.
She Calls them all her nurseiings and
| Louis was her dearest one. 1t was she
! who kept locks of his hair at different
! ages, who wore a bracelet with his baby
picture in it, framed in his mothers hair
in the old-faShioned manner-and she who
saved bits of his childish writings and
triumphantly asserts that she always said
he was a genius.
In Aunty's room in Edinburgh the walls
are lined with Mr.. Stevenson's books, with
many an affectionate dedication written in
the leaves; there are portraits of his also
and Photographic Of himself. his house an
Samoa, his native servants, besides many
strange trophies of his far-off home. But
to her youngest "nurseling," little Alan
Osbourne the most interesting thing in
her room are a lot Of old toys, carefully
preserved, that had belonged to "her chill
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