Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1907-01-24

say lhdt man ~ hfbustai 10 ANousht %
action only by ease, pleasure, or recon,
pense. Something higher, nohler mors
imperative, mpels the Impulse OF soul
II becomes my duty to be just to the
| departed and 10 tread not ruthlessly on
their ashes. The attack ON me and my
late father and his family in Mcclure !
Magazine. January. 1891, eompels mo as
a dutiful child and the leader OF Chris
tian 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 a huge walking stick.
My fathers person was erect and ro-
bust. lie never used walking-siick
To Illustrate: One time when my father
was visiting Governor Pierce. President
Franklin Pierce's father the governor
handed him a gold-headed walking-stielx
as they We're about 10 start for church.
My father thanked the governor. but
declined TO accept the stick, saying. II
never use cane"
Although Mcclure's Magazine attrib-
utes to my father language unseemly. his
| household law, constantly enforced, was
no profanity and no slang phrases. Me
clure's Magazine also declares that the
Bible was the only book In his house. on
the contrary, my father was great read
err.
The man, whom MeClure's Magazine
charaeterizes as Ignorant. dominating.
passionate, fearless was uniformly
dignified-a well-informed intellectual
man. cultivated in mind and mariners
He was called upon to do much business
for his town. making out deeds. settling
auarrels. and even acting as counsel in
a lawsuit involving a question OF pau
perism between the towns OF London and
Bow. \. II. Franklin Pierce. afterward
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 II was de-
cided. Mr. Pierce bowed to my father
and congratulated him. For several
year. father was chaplain of the New
Hampshire State militia, and as | recol-
lect Il, he was justice of the peace at
one time. My father was a strong be-
lever in States rights. but slavery he
regarded as a great sir
Mark Baker was the youngest of his
fathers family. and inherited his fathers
real estate. an extensive farm situated
in Bow and Concord. n. II. II is on re-
cord that Mark Bakers father paid the
largest tax in the colony.
McClure's Magazine says describing
the Baker homestead at Bow: THE
house itself was small, square box
%. nf .
My fathers house had a sloping roof
after the prevailing style of architecture
at that date.
McClure's Magazine states: "Alone Of
the Bakers. he (AlberD received liberal
education. Mary Baker passed
her first fifteen years at the ancestral
home at Bow. IL was lonely and I'M
stimulating existence. The church sup
piled the only social diversion, the dis
trict school practically all the intellectual
life"
Let us see what were the fruits of this
''lonely and discriminating existence"
All my fathers daughters were given an
academic education. sufficiently advanced
so that they all taught school acceptably
at various times and places.
MY bTOliti Aibttl was a tistAiediSaitb
lawyer. In addition TO my academic
training, | was privately tutored by him.
He was a member of the New Hamp-
shire Legislature, and was nominated for
Congress but died before the election.
McClures Magazine calls my youngest
brother, George Sullivan Baker, 4" al
workman in a Tilton wooden mill" As
a matter of fact, he was joint partner
with Alexander Tilton. and together they
owned large manufacturing establish
ment in Tilton, N III. His military title
of colonel came from appointment on
the staff of the governor of New Hamp-
shire.
My Oldest brother Samuel d. Baker,
carried on a large business in Boston,
Mass.
Regarding the allegation by Mcclure S
Magazine that all the family, except
irg Albert, died of cancer" | will say
that there was never a death in my
fathers faml. reported by physician or
post-mortem examination as caused by
cancer.
Mcclure Magazine says that ''the
quarrels between Mary, a child ten years
old, and her father 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 OTTER 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, Dr. Ladd said to Alexander Til
ton: Read it, for 1t 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 lin Rumney N. H.,
a girl totally blind knocked at the door
and was admitted. She begged to be al
lowed to remain with me and my tender
ness and sympathy were such that |
could not refuse her. Shortly after, how
ever, my good housekeeper said to me:
IF this blind girl stays with you, |
shall have to leave; she troubles me 50
much.'
1t was not in my heart to turn the |
blind girl out, ard so / lost my house
keeper.
My reply to the statement that the
clerks book shows that ! Joined the
Tilton Congregational Church at the age !,