Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-01-08

IL is CdIuDluy Oh OHIlStidu tociouCt 10
say that man is aroused to thought OF
action only by ease, pleasure, or recon-
pense. Something higher, nobler, more
imperative, impels the impulse of Soul.
1t becomes my duty to be just to the
departed and to tread not ruthlessly on
their ashes The attack on me and my
late father and his family in McClure's
Magazine, January, 1907, compels me as
dutiful child and the Leader of
Christian Science to speak.
McClure's Magazine refers to my
fathers tall, gaunt Frame" and pie
lures "the old man tramping doggedly
along the highway regularly beating the
ground with huge walking stick
My fathers person was erect and ro-
bust. He never used walking-stick.
To illustrate: One time when my
father was visiting Governor Pierce,
President Franklin Pierce's father, the
Governor handed him a gold
headed walking-stick as they were
about to start for church. My father
| thanked the Governor, but declined to
accept the stick saying, Il never use a
cane"
Although McClure's Magazine attrib-
utes to my father language unseemiy,
his household law, constantly enforced,
was no profanity and no slang phrases
| McClure's Magazine also declares that
| the Bible was the only book in his
house. On the contrary, my father was
a great reader.
The man, whom McClure's Magazine
characterizes as Ignorant, dominating,
passionate, fearless" was uniformly
dignified-a well-informed, intellectual
man, cultivated in mind and manners.
He was called upon to do much business
for his town, making out deeds, settling
| quarrels, and even acting as counsel in
a lawsuit involving question of pau
perlsm between the towns of Loudon
and Bow, N. H. Franklin Pierce, after
ward President of the United States,
| was the counsel for Loudon and Mark
Baker for Bow Both entered their
| pleas, and my father won the suit
After it was decided, Mr.. Pierse bowed
to my father and congratulated him
For several years, father was chaplain
of the New Hampshire State Militia, and
as recollect it, he was Justice of the
Peace at one time. My father was a
| cf, in ,.irr ht,t
| slavery he regarded as great sin.
Mark Baker was the youngest of his
fathers family and inherited his
| fathers real estate, an extensive farm
situated in Bow and Concord, N. H. II
is on record that Mark Bakers father
paid the largest tax in the colony.
/ McClure's Magazine says, describing
the Baker homestead at Bow: 1.-The
house itself was small, square box
structure of rudimentary architecture.
My fathers house had sloping ROOF
after the prevailing style of architecture
at that date.
i McClure's Magazine states: "Alone
of the Bakers, he (Albert) received a
liberal education. Mary Baker
passed her first fifteen years at the an
cestral home at Bow. 1t was lonely
and unstimulating existence. The
church supplied the only social diver
sion, the district school practically all
the intellectual life"
| Let us see what were the fruits of this
"lonely and unstimulating existence"
| Ali my father daughters were given an
academic education, sufficiently adj
vanced so that they all taught school
acceptably at various times and places.
My brother Albert was distinguished
lawyer. In addition to my academic
| training, | was privately tutored by
him. He was a member of the New
| Hampshire Legislature, and was
nominated for Congress but died before
| the election.
| McClure's Magazine calls my young
| est brother, George Sullivan Baker, "a
workman III Tilton wooden mill" As
a matter of fact, he was joint partner
with Alexander Tilton, and together
they owned large manufacturing
establishment in Tilton, N. H. His
military title Of Colonel came from
| appointment on the staff of the Cover
nor of New Hampshire.
My oldest brother, Samuel D. Baker,
carried on large business in Boston,
| Mass.
Regarding the allegation by McClure's
Magazine that all the family, except
ing Albert, died of cancer" | will say
that there was never death in my
fathers family reported by physician
or post-mortem examination as caused
by cancer,
McClure's Magazine says that "the
quarrels between Mary, child ten
years old, and her father, a gray-haired
man of fifty, frequently set the house in
an uproar." and adds that these 'fits"
were diagnosed by DR.. Ladd as
"hysteria mingled. with bad temper
My mother often presented my dispo-
sition as exemplary for her other chill
dren to initiate, saying, When do you
ever see Mary angry?" When the first
edition of Science and Health was pub
lished, DIR. Ladd said to Alexander Til
ton; Read it, for it will do you good
1t does not surprise me, it so resembles
| the author
will relate the following incident,
which occurred later in life, as illustra-
tive of my disposition:
While | was living with Dr. Patterson
at his country home in Rumney, n. H.,
girl, totally blind, knocked at the
| door and was admitted. She begged
| TO be allowed to remain with me, and
my tenderness and sympathy were
such that | could not refuse her.
Shortly after, however. my good house
keeper said to me:
''If this blind girl stays with you.
shall have to leave: she troubles me so