Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-08-18
Blue Stocking Days of the
Carr Sisters.
From the Christian Science Monitor.

THE nearest approach to the first ideal blue
stocking reception ever reached in America was
the Sunday evening receptions of Alice and
Phoebe Cary" writes Mary Clemmer Ames
Here for over fifteen years, in an unpretending
home, gathered not only the most earnest, but
time. There are like assemblies still, wherein
men and women, rich in all fine gifts and graces
meet and mingle; yet doubt if there be one so
catholic, so finely comprehensive as to make it
the rallyng spot, the outraying center of the
artistic and literary life of the metropolis.
Sabbath evening was their reception eve
ming because it was the only one which the sis
tiers had invariably free from labor; and as a
rule, this was equally true of their guests.
I'm their reception there was no formality,
no rule of dress. You could come as simply or
as finely arrayed as you chose Your costly
costume would not increase your welcome, nor
your shabby attire place you at discount. In
deed, if anything about you ever so remotely
suggested poverty or loneliness, it would at the
earliest possible moment bring Alice to your
side. Her dark, gentle, tender eyes would make
you feel at home at once. You would forget
your clothes and yourself altogether, in quiet,
impersonal, friendly flow of talk which would
begin at once between you. If a stranger she
would be sure not to leave you till Phoebe
came, or till she had introduced you to some
pleasant person, and you would not find your
self again alone during the evening.
During the fifteen years or more in which
it hourished, at the little house in Twentieth
street. it numbered among its guests and ha-
bitues as many remarkable men and women as
ever gathered around the abundant board at
Streatham, or sat in the library of Strawberry
Hill
There was Horace Greeley, who SO rarely
missed a Sabbath evening at this house-a man
in mind greater than Johnson. and in manners
not unlike him; who will live in the future
among the most famous of his contemporaries
as the man who, perhaps more than any other
left his own distinctive. individual mark upon
the time in which he lived. There was Oliver
Johnson. rarely absent from that CHEEKY tea
table. the apostle of human freedom, who stood
in the of its feeble guard when it cost much
to do that: strong, earnest. brave and true,
king of radicals, whose swiftest theories never
outran his faith in God. his love for human
nature, his self 'abnegating devotion to his
friends, even when his only reward was selfish
ness and unworthiness, There Mary Ann
Johnson his wife whose memory of
simple. dignihed wise and tender womanhood
is a precious and imperishabe legacy to all who
ever knew and loved her. And Julia Deane,
Alice Carys beloved friend golden haired,
matchless as Grecian goddess | see her now
as I saw her first, in the radiance OF her un-
dimmed beauty, sitting by Whitter's side, great
poet and gentleman. in his plain Friends garb.
What troop of names more, or less IA
nous, arise as | recall those who at different
times have mingled in those receptions: Bay
ard Taylor, with the gifted and lovely wife: the
two married poets, Richard and Elizabeth Stod-
dard. Prof R. W. Raymond. Robert Dale Owen,
Justin Mccarthy. Henry Wilson, Samuel
Bowles George Ripley Edwin Whipple, Rich
ard Kimball, Thomas B. Aldrich Carpenter (the
artist, Robert Chambers of Edinburgh, Robert
Bonner of New York.
II have not space for one tenth of the names
I might recall-actors, artists, poets clergymen,
titled people from abroad, women of fashion,
women of letters, women of home, the known
and the unknown. In each type and class they
found friends; and what better proof could be
given of the richness of their humanity, that,
without being narrowed by any, their hearts
were large enough for all!
perhaps neither sister could have attracted
into one common circle so many minds, various,
if not conflicting in their separate spheres of
thought and action. Each sister was the coun
terpart of the other. To the sympathy, appre-
citation tact genteness, and tenderness of Alice
we're added the wit and bon-homie and spark
ling cheer of Phoebe. The combination was
perfect for social effect and success