Part 4 (1/2)

I hardly knew my own name at the Packer Institute The students called me ”Canary,” I suppose on account of h treble voice; Mr Crittenden always spoke to me as Miss ”Sunburn,” and when my laundry was returned, it was addressed to ”Miss Lae--a netisht away compel tears, I used to listen often to his marvellous sermons I can see hi a clu the impression of heavy, coarse features, thick lips, a coive any idea of theprayer When the audience reverently bowed their heads my own eyes were irresistibly draard the preacher For he prayed as if he felt that he was addressing an all-powerful, o to his appeal And as he went on and on with increasing fervour and power a ured that heavy face, it shone with a white light and spiritual feeling, as if he fully realized his communion with God Himself I used to think of that phrase in Matthew:

”And was transfigured before them, And his face did shi+ne as the sun”

I never heard anyone mention this marvellous transfored to a reporter that he never knehat he had said in his sermon until he looked at the resu the hard days of Beecher's trial a lady as a guest at the house told hter of Beecher's little grandchildren and peeping into their room found Mr

Beecher having a jolly frolic with theet thear in front when they were intended to fasten in the back, and ”funny Grandpa” enjoying it all quite as sincerely as these little ones A pretty picture

Saxe (John Godfrey) called during one recess hour The crowds of girls passing back and forth interested hi their ar, and ”deary,” ”perfectly lovely,” etc He described his i”

Once he handed me a poem he had just dashed off written with pencil, ”To arding it as a co up his poetry in the library, I found the same verses printed years before:

”If bards of old the truth have told, The sirens had raven hair; But ever since the earth had birth, They paint the angels fair”

Probably that was a habit with him

When a friend joked him about his very-a, where he went every year, saying as they sat together on the upper piazza, ”Why, Saxe, I should fancy you owned this hotel,” he rose, and lounging against one of the pillars answered, ”Well, I have a 'lien' on this piazza”

His epigrams are excellent He has e collection of the epigrams of the world, I think there are six at least from Saxe Let me quote two:

AN EQUIVOCAL APOLOGY

Quoth Madame Bas-Bleu, ”I hear you have said Intellectual women are always your dread; Now tell me, dear sir, is it true?”

”Why, yes,” answered Tom, ”very likely I may Have made the remark in a jocular way; But then on my honour, I didn't mean you!”

TOO CANDID BY HALF

As John and his ere discoursing one day Of their several faults, in a bantering way, Said she, ”Though e, I'm sure, my dear husband, our friends will attest This e”

When Saxe heard of a 's lard, he re too far with a woman”

After a railroad accident, in which he received so on the rails so pleasant?” ”Not riding on, but riding off the rail was the trouble”

He apostrophized the unusually pretty girl who at bedtihted candle in a candlestick She fancied so women snubbed her but Saxe assured her in rhyle one of them all Who could, if they would, hold a candle to you”

He was an inveterate punster Miss Caroline Ticknor tells us how he used to lie on a couch in a back room at the Old Corner Bookstore in Boston, at a very early hour, and a the store until one of the partners arrived I believe he never lost a chance to indulge in a verbal quibble ”In the ret that I did not preserve his comical letters, and those of Richard Grant White and other friends ere literary reatly when I was doubtful about so for a woraduate, whom I asked for a brief story of Father Prout, the Irish poet and author, gavelecture of e in Massachusetts

Saxe, like other humourists, suffered fro a lecture in the chapel of Packer Institute at the time I ith Mrs Botta in New York, I was surprised to receive a call the nextfro o to his house, and make use of his library, which he toldand reference library he had ever known A great opportunity for anyone! Mr Storrs was too busy a man to really enjoy his own library Mrs Storrs and Miss Edna Dean Proctor, who made her hohter had married Miss Proctor's brother and lived in Peoria, Illinois Mr Storrs hadhis ”ti an old horse and pedlar's cart froe assortoods,” as stockings, suspenders, gloves, shoestrings, thread and needles, tape, sewing silk, etc He determined to make his own fortune and succeeded royally for he becaenerous nature with a heart as big as his brain

Several of his large rooms downstairs were cras which his soul delighted in picking up, in ivory, jade, bronze, and glass He was so devotedly fond of an built which could be played by pedalling and pulling stops in and out, and so he would rise by half-past six, and be downstairs in his shi+rt sleeves hard at work, eliciting oratorio or opera music for his own delectation A self-made ularly h very decided in his opinions