Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1908-08-05
EVENTFUL LIFE.
NORTH SULLIVAN COUPLE HAVE
BEEN WIDE TRAVELLERS.
ELISHA @. HAMMOND AND WIFE HAVE
SEEN MUCH OF THE woRLD-yHEIk
LAST DAYS IN MAINE,


couple, Elisha q. Hammond and wife, who,
after more than eighty years Of lie, dur
ing which they have travelled all around
the broad world, have now nearly COM
pleted the circle OF life, and are spending
their last days almost within sight Of the
childhood home of Mrs. Hammond.
In their long ant eventful lives they have
often been buffeted about by adverse
winds and tides, and again they have
sailed on smooth seas with fair wind and
tide. Had they then stayed their
hands in their wide, improvident gener-
osity, they would not now be looking for
ward to possibly helpless old age with any
thing but calm thankfulness that they had
been spared so long, had been privileged
to see so much, and were beyond the grasp
of poverty.
Old age in some forms is beautiful; in
some, pathetic; in others, terrible. To one
who has borne bravely his or her part
during long and perhaps uneventful life,
and who comes to the parting surrounded
by children and children's children to the
thi.d or fourth generation, with unim-
paired mind rich with experience and q
heart which has remained young though
the body grew oldY old age is beautiful.
When old age is lonesome; when it has
outlived friends and kindred, it is pa
thetic. But when old age, after q life
largely of affluence, faces poverty between
it and the grave, and crys bitterly, rs it
looks back to the irreclaimable years,
"Oh! didn't think was growing old!
1 didn't think Of money!" then it is
terrible.
Mrs. Hammond spent large part Of her
life amid affiuence. She has travelled ex-
tensively-she has completed the circuit
Of the globe, crossed the Atlantic three
times and crossed the United States six
teen times. She has seen many beautiful
and famous places, hob nobbed with
statesmen and famous actresses. But her
remembrance Of all this is now clouded by
the future.
BORN IN FRANKLIN.
Mrs. Hammond's maiden name was
Maria J. Gordon. She was born May 10,
1927, in the town OF Franklin, just over the
line from Sullivan, and only short dis
lance from her present home. Her parents
were Samuel and Phoebe Urann Gordon,
both Of old and prominent families in the
community.
Maria Gordon was an attractive girl and
had many suitors. But the favored one
was Q cousin-Paul S. Gordon, whom she
married in New York city in 1s49. Tie
choice was not a happy one. In a short
time they separated. Years afterward, in
1888, Gordon was killed in a runaway
accident at Jordan Valley, Idaho. He was
an uncle OF the late John Paul Gordon, of
Franklin. ,4t-
After her separation from Gordon, Mrs.
Gordon went to friends in California. A
few years later she married Col. Charles G..
Bailey, of Boston. Of the we'll known fam
lily Of lawyers and newspaper men-s
twin brother Of George Bailey, then edi-
tor OF the Boston Herald, and brother
in-law Of William Pitt Fessenden, the
Maine statesman.
In this family she met James g. Blaine,
whom she afterward visited at his Bar
Harbor cottage. "Blaine ought to have
been PRESIDENT" she said. And then, as
thoughts OF Blaine stirred some OF her old
political enthusiasm, she exclaimed
Roosevelt! Isn't he just the finest fell
low in the world"
IN CHINA AND EUROPE.
Mr.. Bailey was colonel in the regular
army, and was assigned to duty in China,
where he fought under the English general,
Charles George Gordon, fam Gus in history
as ''Chinese Gordon" Mrs. Bailey went
to China to be near her husband, sailing
from San Francisco in a clipper ship. She
visited the Sandwich Islands en- route, and
in China visited Shanghai, Hong Kong,
and other large cities. While she was not
actually with the army in its campaign,
she kept in touch with her husband, and
in cities where she stayed was often within
sound Of the guns.
From China she sailed for Liverpool in
the famous clipper ship warwick
CASTLE, around the Cape of Good Hope. 1t
was long and rough passage, and once
they gave up hope of ever reaching Liver
island of st. Helena, where. Mrs. Bailey
visited the grave of Napoleon. "Oh!" she
exclaimed, with sudden enthusiasm, as she
spoke OF it last week, sit was beautiful
there, and the willows by the grave were
beautiful. But it was.so lonely; so lonely
And from there they took him to that
magnificent tomb at the Hotel des In
:al. ,:a;@
ward" And then, jumping back to st.
Helena as the visit freshened in her mind,
with deliciously human touch she
added, ''And there were the loveliest black
berries there you ever saw"
After reaching Liverpool Mrs. Baily
travelled extensively in England and on
the continent. Places which stood out
prominently in her mind as she spoke of
this visit were the Tower at London,
where she saw the royal silver and jewels
used on state occasions, and Queen
" of