Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-02

ut was the saddest day in all my life
There had been a tacit understanding that
in case Mrs Snow should pass away first
her companion should inherit for her own
use as long as she lived the little cottage
she now occupies.
Mrs Damon is a remarkably well-pre-
served woman considering she is more than
nienty years Of age. She is quite erect in
carriage, with a strong. intellectual face,
such as might be expected in an own cousin
of Charles Sumner, and a most kindly eX-
preston, especially when smiling. She en-
joys fair health, although at times she suf-
fers from neuralgia due, in large measure,
to the condition of her teeth, her means
having been inadequate to enable her to
give them proper attention. Her appetite
is quite good, but she is subject to frequent
attacks of indigestion. At such times her
friends seek to induce her to remain in
bed, but she has such dread of becom-
ing bedridden and completely helpless that
she persists in remaining up and about the
house.
Mrs. Damon has been a great reader from
her earliest childhood. She has absorbed
everything that came to her hand, and
through the medium of daily papers, pub
lie documents, Congressional Records and
other literature given to her secondhand
has kept well abreast of the times and is
today well informed concerning important
events, political and otherwise, present and
past. Last winter the glare of the sun on
the snow appeared to seriously injure her
eyesght and now she is dependent upon
the kindly offices of neighbors, who come
to her cottage and read to her by the hour
to her great pleasure.
Never Seen Mount Vernon.
Ordinarily. Mrs. Damon is somewhat deaf.
but when she becomes interested and ami
mated in conversation the deafness seems
largely to disappear and she hears very
readily. Her memory is remarkably acute.
especially touching events occurring half
or three-quarters of a century ago. To
her the incidents of the Mexican war are
but yesterday, and she can follow many
of the armies of the civil war through their
entire campaigns.
Mrs. Damon recalls, without hesitation,
the names of practically all of the Presi-
dents and many of the great statesmen
since 1880 and is informed in a remarkable
degree concerning events contemporaneouS
with the administration Of each President.
Not only does this widow of the revolution
possess a memory which is literally an en-
cyclopedia Of events for seventy-five
years, but she has original ideas and con-
occupied the public mind during that
period and commands language and force
to express these views clearly and inter-
estingly.
The ninety-one years of Mrs. Damons
life have been spent in one little spot on
the mountain top. In her earlier life she
occasionally journeyed to Cuttingsville or
other railroad towns, and she has upon a
stations on the cars, but aside from these
Interruptions for a day sandwiched in be-
tween decades of years she has known no
other surroundings all these four score and
ten years except the pine-clad Green noun
tains.
Mrs. Damon has often expressed a desire
to visit Mt. Vernon, the old home and
present tomb of George Washington, and to
see the Capitol and White House in Wash
ington. She had also wished very much
to visit Mrs. Rebecca Mayo of Virginia, her
partner on the roll of revolutionary war
widows who died last year, but the slender
means of 10 cents per day would not per-
nit the necessary expenditure for railway
transportation and until Mrs. Mayo's death
the last two widows of the war for Ameri-
can liberty were compelled to limit their
acquaintance within the scope of the mails,
exchanging an occasional letter.
OF all the strange features in connection
with the remarkable story of the life of
this aged woman perhaps the most strik-
ing is the fact that her existence has been
practically unknown In the state where she
was born and where she has lived for
nearly 81 years. Ten miles from her noun
tain home not dozen persons could, APP
parently, be found who had ever heard of
Esther Sumner Damon. the solitary sur
viying widow of the revolution.