Year: 1875

CANT I4OOk1HS w OAAan WHO


has Stirred up the World.


Brooklyn letter to the Boston Gazette.


How she should have been the
cause of so much turmoil is a prob
lem that is almost impossible to solve
without personal acquaintance with
her. She is slight, insignificant
looking woman, lean and angular,
with face of some pretension7 to
beauty. Her height is almost dwarf
ish, and upon seeing her for the first
time one could not realize how two
such strongly physical men as Tilton
and Beecher could have been at
tracted by so slight and uninterest-
ing an object. But great events from
little causes flow. There is nothing
in her face or manner that would
point to her as the writer of the pas
sionate and sentimental letters that
have been read on the trial. On the
contrary, she would sooner be asso-
ciated with making preserves or pre-
serving pickles, and eating both with
true New England zest at tea. That
she is a woman of strong character
is evinced by the persistency with
which she has sat the trial through,
and has listened without blush to
the bitterly cruel things which have
been said of her. [ cannot reconcile
Tilton's harangues about her mod


esty. refinement. and delicacy with
her almost brazen boldness in visit
ing the court where she is made the
central point of all the nastines up
on which the case hinges. Certainly
/ her nature is not one that is easily
shocked, and, unless she is brought
there for effect, | cannot understand
why she is brought there at all. Her
course has been the subject of uni
versal unfavorable comment in al
most every direction. 1t may be true
that even the worm turns when it is
trodden upon, but it would be much
more creditable in this instance if
the worm were to turn in private. If
her face be examined critically and
carefully, one will become easily con-
vinced that the lines in it are not at
all weak. When she forgets herself,
there comes a harsh expression that
plainly manifests self-will. She will
not scold, but she will plan. She
will be effnsive, but she will not tell
all she knows. One would naturally
expect a woman with SO fragile a
physique, especially if she were the
tender and snow-pure being her hus-
band maintains her to be, to be worn,
worried. crushed By the mental tri-
ais to which whe has been subjected /;
but she is not, if she may be judged
by her looks and her bearing ;-she is
cool, firm, and selfpossessed Once
or twice she has shed tears, but they
have been plainly tears Of vexation
and not of grief. From this | would
surmisa, in the language of one of
the visitors to the trial, that ''What-
ever else she,may be. she is nobody's
fool" At alleeyents, she is about
the last person in the world who
would attract a passing gaze, except
for the insignifieanee of her appear
ance. which is remarkable. Perhaps
Helen. of Troy. was little woman,
with pale, pinched and demure face,
with no anatomy " Orth speaking of. |
and Paris parple-faeed. robust and
Iaehrymose warrior, while Menelaus
was, not unlikely, conoeited fellow |
who never thought it necessary to |
show much interest in his wife until |
the fact of Paris carrying her off be-
came so notorious that respect for
public opinion forced him to make a
noise about 1t. We know that Cleo
patra was over lean, and had a snub |
nose. Antony must have often sat |
on the ragged edge of despair when
he thought of Octasia. Many ofthe
lean and homely women of history
have managed to make considerable /
trouble with the hearts of great men.
We cannot Judge of the powers of a
rat tail file by merely looking at it.