The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-04-21
X.-ELIzABETH FRY.
(17s1-is45.)

II IKE the pity in your full-brimmed eve.
IKE your carriage and your siIken
Your doye-like habits and your silent
But don't like your Newgatory teach
ing.
No, I'll be your friend, and like friend.
Foint out your very worst defects-nay,
Start at that word. But I must ask
You keep your school in Newgate, Mrs.
The foregoing deplorably numerical
rhyme called Keep Your School out
Of Newgate. Mrs. Fry was the out
come of an effort by Thomas Hood to
put in ballad form the popular amaze
ment az the prison reforms brought
ABOUT by that active philanthropiet,
Mrs. Elizabeth Fry. The cordial sup
port which the most eminent men and
women CT Europe have since given
Mrs. Fry's helpful plans has. proved
Hoods diagnosis of her teaching to
nave been as poor as the puns in which
ne tried to express it.
This woman who braved the ferocity
OF the prison inmates and the banter
ing OF the unconrprehendinS was natur-
ally of such timOrous temperament that
she could never have achieved her good
works had she not been actuafed by
the thought that she was called of Cod
10 minister to mis- suffering and sinful
children. As a child she was afraid Of
the dark, nervously apprehereive OYER
approaching trouble, and given to NOR
Did seIf-probing. Her presentiments in
regard TO the death of her mother
whose very slumbers Elizabeth used to
watch with nervous jealousy. were
sadly fulfilled when Elizabeth was but
II years old. After this unexpecfet1
blow Mr.. Quincy, the father became
greatly self-absorbed, and, naturally
lndulgent. let his twelve young chill
dren bring themselves up the best way
they could. Utterly unrestrained. their
lives henceforth afforded a great con-
trast to the systematic religious train
ing which the mother had enforced.
AFTER the violence of their grief had
passed away the bereaved family led
the gayeSt existence in their beautiful
country seat at Earlham.
Elizabeth Quincy, the third daueh-
ter, whom the lowing mother had called
her Dovelike Betsy" had grown into
a tail. slender girl with fiaxen hair. ex
IRENE exuberence Of spirits, a fiippancy
IN quoting the aesthetic aphOrisn1s of
Tor wearing becoming scarlet riding
habits, for hearing the band play. for
attracting the notice Of adnTiring Of
ncerS CHARTERED in the neighborhood
and Tor going to the opera to see ''the
prince "a petted, fly-away girl whose
naive entries in her journal form a
ralr index Of her girlhood character.
July l1-Company to dinner. l must
beware of not being a fiirt; it is an
aponlnaDle character; I hope I slrall
never be one, and yet fear I am one
now, little. Be careful not to talk AT
random. If do pass this day without
foolish action, it viii be the first 1
ever passed so. If I pass a day with
only few foolish actions, I may think
it a good one
Strange as it may seem, under these
dellciousfy diametric characteristics Tay
excellent foundation for the high des-
tiny winch Elizabeth Quincy ultimately
achieved. Her volatile spirits kept her
enthusiasm, when diverted to a more
serious subject, fresh and vigorous: her
quickneas at repartee gave her facility
IN choosing the right word for courier.
camp or convict; her lively magma
tlon, her zest for Selling the strong
points or situation, lent an almost
regal force to her pleadings fol. the
unfortunate, tanned by her kindly heart,
and the cunning of her childhood de-
veloped into the shrewdest penetration
or the inwardness OF those whom she
was to influence.
Underlying her girlish archness lay a
habit OF seh-analySis which frequently
caused her great discomfort. We find
II her journal entries made before she
was IL sincerely questioning her right
TO be so occupied with trif1es. dress in
particular. After several months of
Strugghngs she decided that her high
spirits ran away with her when dane
ing and singing, and that she must
hencefcrth give up these CRAFTY en-
1oyed and otherwise innocent diver
sionS. She had several lapses into
these, her besetting sins. and might
eventually have drifted back into her
pleasure loving life had it not been
for the forcible circumstances of VIII
naM Slavery, visiting American
Friend. Upon the day of his first adj
dress the seven beautiful daughters of
Mr.. Quincy sat in a row under the gal
lery of the Norwich meeting house.
Betsy's usual restleesnese, being made
especially conspicuous by her smart
purple boots, laced with red From that
day, however, her love for the world
seemed gone.
Her father was not a plain Friend,
and, fearing that EIizabeth's impress
sionable nature might lead her 10
make resolutions which she might
afterward wish to break, he wisely took
her to London on a test visit, of which
her journal records a round of dancing.
opera and rouge. Her awakened con-
science. however, took the Zest out of
her gayeties, and when she again heard
William Slavery speak in London her
resolution was taken to become a plain
Friend. She had a horror of emotional
religion, which she believed led to IA
naticiSm, and she, therefore, approach-
ed with great soberness the decision
from which she never afterward waver-
ed. Hers was a restless nature. which
developed to the best advantage when
hemmed in by certain fixed restrictions,
and she, therefore, found a definite SUD-
port in Friendly eobriety, in the plain
dress Cthe becoming poke bonnet hav-
ing not yet succeeded the Friendly
beaver hat) and in the temperate usa
of. the familiar pronoun.
Elizabeth Quincy had meanwhile
started a Rible-reading school among
the poor of the neighborhood. which
soon numbered eighty children. whom
she interested through the sheer force
or her personality, unaided by the pic
lures and gifts" so helpful to modern
teachers.
AZ the age of 10 the impetuous Eliza
beth married Joseph Fry. babe farewell
TO her tearftd school children and went
to live in Mildred'e court. London. The
FRS were such decidedly plain Friends
that they considered the Quaker bride
quite worldly. She certainly was al
ways extremely liberal minded. not
Withstanding her scrupuloue conform
ity to tine externals so valued by her
new relatives.
The domestic cares Of a prosperous
family always entertaining largely
and Hospitality pressed so heavily upon
her for the next twelve years that we
find little comment in regard to this
period of her life except her active phil