The sun., 1909-05-28
JULIA WARD HOWE Is NINETY
AUTHOR OF THE BATTLE HYMN
CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY.
Retains Her Faculties. but Shows Phys-
cal Weakness Incident 10 Ase-A Few
Reininls cences OF Great Men-Shc
Thinks Women Gamble Good Deal.

BosroN. May:27, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe,
known the world over as the author OF
The Battle Hymn Of the Republic cele-
brated her ninetieth birthday to-day at
her home in Beacon street. Present were
Mrs Howe's four children, Mrs. Maude
Howe Elliott. Mrs. Laura +. Richards,
Mrs. d. P. Hall and Prof. H. NJ. Howe OF
Columbia University. who assisted their
mother in receiving a very few OF her
closest friends. This reception was the
only event OF the day that in the least
partook Of formality. Mrs. Howe got
many kilograms and letters of congratu.
lation. not few of them from abroad
while the house was nearly filled with
flowers sent by friends who remembered
the day.
Despite her age. Mrs. Howe remains
in possession of all her faculties. only
her physical weakness betraying her ad'
vanced years. For long time she has
been regarded as typifying the Boston
culture that made Boston famous in the
third quarter of the last century and this
despite the fact that she is not native
Bostonian. She was born, in fact, in NeT
York city. down near the Battery, and
most Of her grlhood was spent in her
fathers house, which stood at Bond street
and Broadway. which in those days was
the fashionable nei ghborhood in New
York. When she was % years old she vas
on a visit in Boston and met Samuel
Gridley Howe, whom she subsequently
married. Since that time she has lived
in Boston. where she has been intimate
with local literary celebrities for many
years.
Her age did not prevent her appearances
this year as before at the Perkins Institute
for the Blind. which was founded many
years ago by her husband and where in
fact she first met him. She has made
several public appearances this year.
delivering occasi onal addresses at the
Church OF the Disciples in Boston She
has long been one OF the foremost advo-
of her public utterances have referred 70
this subject. In recent years she has
taken an active interest in the condition
of the lower classes in Russia. Within
a few weeks she has been writing an article
on Immortality which is TO be published
in one Of the magazines. She Is still presi-
dent OF the Authors Club. ot which Thomas
wentworth Jllkeiupoh 70 N'So- ~ cSiuSht'
In 1908 Mrs. Howe became great-grand-
mother through the birth OF a child to
Mrs Henry Marion Hall OF East Orange
n. j. a.,
at some length OF the various American
and English men and women OF note whom
she had come to know IN her long life.
She had keen memories OF Carlyle. whose
tea drinking habits amazed her: OF WASH
ington irving, OF Wendell Phillips. whom
she last heard in the Old South Meeting
House when he delivered the address al
the unveiling OF the statue OF Harriet
Martineau; OF John Brown. who once
called on her; Of Agassiz, and Florence
Nightingale and Sydney Smith. She
spoke too OF Oliver Wendell Holmes, OF
whom she said: Whenever ! met him he
generally did most OF the talking. ! re-
member particularly one time when he
was at dinner at my house In company
with William Alger and Ralph Waldo
Emerson. and II was MIR. Holmes who
did most OF the talking even then.
Emerson. she said. was by far the greatest
writer she ever knew.
When Mrs. Howe was asked who was
the most representative OF American
writer's she said that perhaps William
Dean Howells was entitled to that desorip-
ton. To tho suggestion OF Henry James
she replied that he was both a beautiful
and a finished writer but that he had lived
90 long abroad that he could scarcely be
called representatively American.
or all that abe had written herself Mrs
Howe said that II was The Battle Hymn
Of the Republic FIRST published in the