The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-04

faithful. Since then Mrs. Eddy has been invisible save to Frye and the members of her inner circle.
 But now that the amazing facts have been made public the door so long barred by the footman-secretary may be opened Legal action to ascertain the full truth is practically assured"
 The publication of this story was fol- lowed by a farcical performance at Mrs. Eddys home when she received a dozen newspaper reporters to show them that she was not helpless as bad as asserted. She WAS asked if her health was par feet, and she replied in the affirmative. She was asked if she employed a physi- clan, and she replied in the negative. She was asked if she took drive every day, and again she replied in the affrma- tive. A fourth question was put, but she left 1t unanswered. Her longest speech was in response to the question about a physician. "No physician but God she said His everlasting arms are about me. That Is enough" For the rest the accounts of her appearance vary slightly in detail; one has deep circles and wrinkles about the eyes, another rather healthy red color;" one speaks of a deep and level voice." another of a
  the whole the variations are slight and no more than are commonly found in the various reports of anything seen by sev- eral observers under similar conditions Nothing was proved after all. except that Mrs. Eddy is alive and less young than sine was forty years ago when she discovered" Christian Science.
 The woman has had an interesting ca reer. Mary Morse Bayer was born in a farm house in the little hamlet of Bow, N. H., about seven miles from Concord. Her father, Mark Baker. was poor man. whose small farm topped knoll now owned by his nephew, John Baker, father of the New Hampshire congressman of that name.
 The house where Mary Baker first saw the light of day. on July 16. 1921, was then surrounded by a pine forest and the only industries of the farmers rcund- about were cutting wood for market and raising few head of stock.
 Her brothers and sisters were: Samuel, born in 1908; Albert born in 1S1o; George Sullivan. born in 1872; Abigail. who was afterward Mrs. Alexander Triton, born in 1Sl6 and Martha, born in 1873.
 It will be seen that Mary waS the youngest of a flock of six. Mark Baker was unable to afford his children the advantages of an education other than could be had in the little red school NtN-AN year. One by one the older children grew up, married and left the paternal roof.
 Up to the age of twelve, when Mary Baker was taken by her parents to live in Concord, she had not mastered the intrlcaeies of the multiplication table She was the conventional ignorant little backwoods girl In truth, she never got any "schooiing'' in spite of the fact that she has recorded it Tn her memoirs that she mastered Greek, Latin and He- brew as well as mathematics, under the tuition of her brother, Albert. As the records show that Albert left home to go to Boston the same year the Baker ram ily moved into Concord-that is. in 1833- having then arrived at the age of IT, and that for the next dozen years he studied in the schools and law college finally becoming a lawyer, it is easy to see that the 12-year- Mary and her 17-year-old brother Albert, must have been infant prodigies.
 As~a matter of fact, testified to by Mrs. H. L.. Philbrook of Triton, N. H., a schoolmate of Mary Baker, the girl had not anything like mastered, the three R's'' when at the age of 14, she become a pupil in the public school in 11lton, and up' to the day of her completion ot her single term in that school had not achieved long division. She could not
  iarity, and her reading was halting.
 In one of her books Mrs. Eddy has given to the world a picture of what purports to be the home Of her ln- fancy, depicting a roomy and ramoihg ancestral mansion, with hip roofs ana spreading porticos, surrounded by bg barns and granarles cracking open with corn Fat kline graze among the broad acres rolling away from the dooryard. while blooded horses arch ther necks and bleating sheep follow their leader over the hills. As a portrait Of the actual building in which Mary Baker was born, it is a trifle misleading. The Identical building now stands opposite the house on the John Baker farm, recently occupied by John French. It was re- moved from It's former location on the knoll to it's present site and used as toulouse and woodshed. It Is about twenty feet wide by twelve feet deep, anN is two low stories in height, with twd rooms on each floor.
 John Baker, hale, hearty and we'll educated man of 73, who now lives on a fine place in the center of the village of Bow, two miles from the spot where Mary Baker was born says that he now owns the Baker farm having inherited it from his father who was brother to Mark Baker. from whom 1t was pur- chased at the time he moved into Con cord.
 Cousin Mary is a bit ambitious" said she old man. ''When she wanted to tell her followers what kind of a place she was born in she came out here to see me and brought a draughtsman along. She insisted that the old house, as 1t now stands, was reduced in size and very different from what 1t was when she was born under its roof.
 "So she drew an imaginary sketch con- +ip,tinu Inc roof and adding wings and porches Then she magnified the single little barn into two or three vast gran aries and did other things to make the pictures look imposing. I told Cousin Mary that 1t wasn't as I remembered 1t, but she said that I was getting old and did not remember, so I shut up, and Cousin Mary got the picture man to