The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-12-09

his name, and which his grandfather mad
purchased from the Crown OF England
with French and Spanish coin made as IL
young trapper in the west
Before this turnpike there was oniy a
birdie path, and pack-tlorses brought all
the settlers luXures to them. After that
the great connestoSa wagons came, and
they were on u public stage line. Thus
has this lady witnessed with her own
eyes the packhorse, the connestoga, the
freight train, come consecutively to her
door with the comforts for her life.
When she was a child party of In
dams in war paint End blankets. dstin-
guisned chiefs in all the glory of their
ancient tribes, on their way from Wash
ington where they went to sign a treaty,
stopped a her home and remained a few
days, being entertained in her fathers
best style. They stopped also as they
returned over the great western trail. and
iabbered to her father their childish OBJ
servations on the capital of the republic.
In those days the itinerant shoemaker,
and weaver, and SeamStreSs were neceSstt-
ry adjunGtS to the large householder
And occasionally there. came artist
with his kit of old-world pigments and his
clumsy brush and courtly manners, as be-
fl a fine gentleman. From one of these
rowing artists 1 learn in his published
your correspondent a few years ago, that
Mrs. Hamilton-then Mrs. Wharton-was
d very beautiful woman. ALSO that
younger sister, Sophia, who afterwards
became the wife of a Southern planter,
DIR. Hugh M. Grant, of Selma, Alabama,
was once a dainty girl of seventeen, whose
soft black curls and rosy cheeks. to say
nothing of her coIuetry and musical &C
complshinents, quite won the artists
heart, and he confessed in his aut0Diogra-
ply, published nearly fifty years later,
thai he, would have returned TO make her
his bride had he not been beaten in the
race by a weather. gentleman. This ar
fists portrait, painted by himself, was
presented to Sophia, and is yet solemn.
bearded ghost OF a past generation, and
knowing his pretty story, having read his
love-letters and read his autobiography,
and heard the legend many times of the
Intercepted letters, / know that hearts
were just as warm and far more true
than they are to-day, away back in 1910 or
os. The artist refer to became successful
one, was a pupil of Tom Sully in Phila-
delphia, and it was from Sullys studio
that the letters We're sent.
Mrs. DR.. Grant lived to be siNty-three
years old, and read the artists autobio-
graphy published-all her dainty coquet-
ries, and her blushes and her smiles re-
corded in cold type, and also the gentle
mans ardent and undimmeI admira ton
before she died. If she had any opinions
on the subject she never expressed them.
1t is certain, however, that she was very
happily married to DR.. Grant. Mrs. Ham
iltOn was twice happily married, being the
widow of Samuel Hamilton, of West Vir-
gina. She is still a fine looking woman,
with a strong, intellectual face. Her OBJ
servations of the changes that have taken
place during her life time, in all branches
of science. with which she has kept up,
and of this part OF the country which is
still primitive, are quite interesting to one
who studies the march of man.
E. s. G.