A 1 
 
 .\- 
 
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CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021991678 
 
KATE FIELD 
 
■■■"■■^V 
 
Kate Field. 
 From the Portrait painted by Eliiiu Vedder, Florence, i86l. 
 
KATE FIELD 
 
 a decorli 
 
 BY 
 LILIAN WHITING 
 
 " Spirits are not finely touched but to fine issues " 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND CQMPANY 
 
 1899 ' 
 
Copyright, 1S99, 
 By Little, Brown, and Company 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 , ©nibetsitj! JJttss 
 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 
 
TO 
 
 T. SANDFORD BEATY, 
 
 WHOSE NOBLE AND GENEROUS FRIENDSHIP GLADDENED 
 THE LIFE OF KATE FIELD, 
 
 THIS RECORD IS INSCRIBED 
 
 WITH THE UNFORGETTING GRATITUDE OF 
 
 LILIAN WHITING 
 
 9 
 
 "And she the rest will comprehend, will comprehend" 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Childhood and Circumstance. An Interesting Hered- 
 ity. Family Letters. Mr. and Mrs. Field's Stage 
 Life. Death of Joseph M. F'eld. The Mother 
 and Daughter ^ 
 
 CHAPTER 11 
 
 Early Youth. Aspirations and Studies. Interest in 
 
 Art and Literature. Ardent Devotion to Music . 45 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Florentine Days. At Villa Bellosguardo. Enthusiasm 
 for Italy. George Eliot and the Trollopes. Walter 
 Savage Landor. At Casa Guidi with the Brownings 83 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Lecturing and Writing. Intense Energy of Purpose. 
 John Brown's Grave. Ristori, Fechter, and the 
 Drama. Planchette's Diary. Death of Eliza 
 Riddle Field 147 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Europe Revisited. Among London Celebrities. In 
 Spain with Castelar. Music and Drama. Pro- 
 fessor Bell and the Telephone. The Shakespeare 
 Memorial 257 
 
viii Contents 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Page 
 
 Return to America. New York Life. The Lander 
 Album. Social Literests. The Co-operative 
 Dress Association. An Unsuspected Romance . 379 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Summer Days in Colorado. The Mormon Problem. 
 Alaska and the Golden Gate. Picturesque 
 Journeys. Comments on Affairs. Important 
 Lectures. Fame and Friends 419 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 "Kate Field's Washington." A Unique Enterprise. 
 Miss Gilder's Friendship. Charming Life in the 
 Capital. The Columbian Exposition. France 
 confers the " Palms of the Academy " on Miss 
 Field 467 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Crossing the Bar. A Journey of Destiny. Life and 
 Studies in Hawaii. Noble and Generous Work. 
 The Angel of Death 523 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 In Retrospect. Universal Appreciation and Love. 
 The Strange Ordering of Circumstance. A Sculp- 
 tured Cross in Mount Auburn. Death only an 
 Event in Life 561 
 
 Index 579 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Page 
 Portrait, from the original picture painted by Elihu Vedder, 
 
 in Florence, 1861 Frontispiece 
 
 Portrait, from the original picture painted by Simpson, 
 
 1852 47 
 
 Portrait, from a photograph taken in 1865 . . 147 
 Portrait, from a crayon drawing by Vanderweyde, London, 
 
 1878 380 
 
 Facsimile of Kate Field's handwriting . . . . 456 
 
 Portrait, from a photograph taken in 1889 468 
 
KATE FIELD 
 
 A RECORD 
 
T salicte the immortal. Great minds never die. 
 Becoming Invisible in one fo?-m, they become resplend- 
 ent in another. — Victor Hugo. 
 
CHILDHOOD AND CIRCUMSTANCE 
 
 " The birds sing like angels, so mystical-fine, 
 
 And the cedars are brushing the archangel's feet; 
 
 And time is eternity, love is divine. 
 And the world is complete. 
 
 May God bless the child, father, mother respond, 
 
 O Life, O Beyond, 
 Thou art strange, thou art sweet." 
 
KATE FIELD 
 
 " From wave and star and flower 
 Some effluence rare 
 Was lent thee, a divine, but transient dower." 
 
 " I will paint her as I see her." 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Childhood and Circumstance. An Interesting Heredity. 
 Family Letters. Mr. and Mrs. Field's Stage Life. 
 Death of Joseph M. Field. The Mother and Daughter. 
 
 KATE FIELD'S varied and prismatic life rises 
 before one like a romance of destiny. It was 
 a life strangely rich in a series of brilliant represen- 
 tations and of unique experiences ; and still, if an in- 
 cantation of prophecy had been invoked over her 
 cradle, voice and vision might well have proclaimed 
 to her : " It will be yours to wrestle, not to reign." 
 She was pre-eminently a woman who impressed the 
 imagination. She abounded in spiritual energy. 
 Delicate in physique, artistic in temperament, exqui- 
 site in taste, lofty in all poetic and heroic aspiration, 
 she had in the utmost degree that intense and finely 
 wrought nature that leaves in some form or other 
 its haunting impress. Kate Field was made 
 
 " of spirit, and fire, and dew," 
 
 and her tenacity of endurance was a signal illustration 
 of the power of the mind over the body. 
 
4 Kate Field 
 
 Mary Katherine Keemle Field was the stately bap- 
 tismal name that will hardly be recognized as iden- 
 tical with the brief and familiar one by which she 
 was known, and which seemed to express her per- 
 sonality; but this was the name given to the little 
 girl born in St. Louis, Mo., on Oct. i, 1838, the 
 daughter of Joseph M. and EHza (Riddle) Field. 
 Behind her lay a most interesting heredity. The 
 Field family came originally from Warwickshire, 
 England, and its earliest known representative was 
 Nathaniel Field, one of the Elizabethan dramatists, 
 who wrote several plays, among which there was one 
 called " Woman as a Weathercock." He was a friend 
 of Shakespeare and an actor in his company. Curi- 
 ously, the first time that Kate Field visited the church 
 at Stratford-on-Avon she found her foot stepping on 
 a grave-slab bearing the name of Field, one of her 
 far-away ancestors. In some revolutionary change 
 the family became located in Ireland, and we find 
 Kate's grandfather, Matthew Field, a leading Catholic 
 in Dublin, and a man so benevolent and beloved 
 that he was commonly known as " the Saint." The 
 rebellion of 1798 came on and all his property was con- 
 fiscated. Then he came to America with his family, 
 settled in Baltimore where he became a publisher 
 and brought out the first Catholic almanac in this 
 country. He died in early life, leaving a family of 
 young children, of whom his two sons, Joseph and 
 Matthew, were destined to leave more than an ordi- 
 nary impress on life. The latter was a poet whose 
 work met with considerable recognition from Poe and 
 other of the literary people of his day. His early 
 death cut short what promised to be a literary career 
 of importance. Joseph M. Field was still more 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 5 
 
 brilliantly gifted, — too richly endowed, indeed, in 
 various lines, for that concentration upon any single 
 line which is the condition of special success. He, 
 also, was a poet ; his versatility, one might almost say 
 his fatal versatility, — which his daughter inherited 
 in a marked degree, — was manifested as an actor, 
 a playwright, a journalist, an organizer and theatre- 
 manager, and a delightful raconteur of travel and 
 incident. Nothing more conclusively points to the 
 reality of the immortal life than the vision of these 
 rare and richly endowed natures for whom the ut- 
 most span of physical existence here is hopelessly 
 inadequate in its time for development and achieve- 
 ment. Joseph M. Field was one of whom it might 
 truly be said : — 
 
 " His life was gentle, and the elements 
 So mixed in him that nature might stand up 
 And say to all the world, ' This was a man.' " 
 
 He was born in 18 10, in Dubhn, during the brief 
 sojourn of the family in Ireland, and was but two 
 years of age when his father settled in Baltimore. 
 In his earliest youth he went upon the stage and be- 
 came a great favorite as an actor. He wrote stories 
 and plays, one of which, called " Family Lies," took 
 the prize of $1000 offered by Dan Marble for the 
 best American comedy. Other plays of his were 
 brought out with success; and in a French drama 
 called " Gabrielle," which Mr. Field translated and 
 adapted to the American stage, Charlotte Cushman 
 played the leading r61e, making of it one of her finest 
 successes. It was somewhere about 1836 that Mr. 
 Field, the young actor, excelling in light comedy, 
 first met Miss Riddle, who was engaged in the same 
 
6 Kate Field 
 
 company, and had already won recognition for her 
 impersonation of Julia in " The Hunchback." 
 
 Eliza Riddle was one of a family somewhat excep- 
 tionally gifted. Her mother, Mary (Lapsley) Riddle, 
 was the daughter of an old Philadelphia family of 
 Quakers, and seems to have been an exotic ; for at 
 the age of fifteen she ran away from home to go 
 on the stage. She married an actor, Mr. William 
 Riddle, and with him entered on the dramatic life. 
 Of this marriage there were several children, — Sarah, 
 who became well known to the stage under her mar- 
 ried name of Mrs. W. H. Smith ; Edward and Wil- 
 liam, who both shared in the brilliant gifts of their 
 family, but who died in comparatively early life; 
 Eliza, who became the wife of Joseph M. Field ; and 
 Cordelia, wonderfully gifted in music, who became 
 Mrs. Milton T. Sanford, the wife of a Newport mil- 
 lionaire. The marriage of Kate Field's maternal 
 grandparents — Mr. W. H. Riddle and Miss Mary 
 Lapsley — must have occurred in the very early 
 years of 1800, and Eliza (Mrs. Field) was born about 
 1 812. In 1823 we find Mrs. Riddle, with her young 
 family about her, playing in and around Cincinnati, 
 sharing the life of the strolling actor of those early 
 years. The stage of those days was no such luxuri- 
 ous temple of the Muses as now meets the exaction 
 of polite life, but was frequently a dark and shabby 
 place, and salaries averaged from eight to fifteen dol- 
 lars a week. Mrs. Mary Riddle was a strong person- 
 ality, and to her Edwin Forrest owed the aid which 
 led to his first professional success. Lawrence Bar- 
 rett, in his biography of Edwin Forrest, speaks of 
 the friendship between him and the Riddles as one 
 which, " beginning under the shadow of a mutual 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 7 
 
 poverty, lasted and grew stronger and more dear 
 under the sun of prosperity. To Mrs. Riddle and 
 her family," continues Mr. Barrett, " Edwin Forrest 
 owed in those dark days much of the hope and en- 
 couragement which brighten adversity. Their cour- 
 tesy and unfaihng friendship were the ties which 
 bound him to duty, and kept in his mind the exam- 
 ple and precepts of his beloved mother and sister. 
 The Riddles had passed many years of honorable 
 labor in their profession, and reached respectable 
 positions, and out of their scanty earnings made 
 Edwin feel at home in a circle where happy con- 
 tentment helped to banish from the hearthstone the 
 pangs of public neglect or private sorrows. To the 
 end of his life, in fame and prosperity, the name of 
 this early benefactress of his was a dear one to his 
 ears, and he never ceased to speak fondly of her and 
 of her memory." 
 
 Mrs. Mary Riddle died in Boston on Dec. 2, 
 1840, when her grand-daughter, Kate Field, was but 
 two years of age. Edwin Forrest came to stand by 
 the grave that winter day when the snow lay deep 
 over Mount Auburn, and as the faint sunshine shone 
 upon his head, reverently bared, the tears fell un- 
 checked from his eyes. " My heart is full of memo- 
 ries," he said to a friend. 
 
 The beneficence of character which so distin- 
 guished the mother was shared by all her children, 
 and particularly by Eliza, whose patience and sweet- 
 ness of nature were almost ideal. She was also lovely 
 in person, — a slender, graceful figure, with oval face 
 shaded by rich brown hair, with eyes which matched 
 it to a shade, and rose tints adding brilliancy to a 
 finely expressive countenance. 
 
8 Kate Field 
 
 May»we pause for a moment in contemplation of 
 this prologue of the drama of Kate Field's life? — of 
 these " meeting streams," as George Eliot well calls 
 them. The coming to America of a Catholic pub- 
 lisher from Dublin ; the impetuous impulse of a girl 
 of Quaker parentage to enter on the dramatic life; 
 the years of hardship and privation in her profession 
 and of honorable struggle to rear and educate her 
 family of young children ; and then the meeting of 
 the son of the one and the daughter of the other, 
 each with the best traditions of life behind, — not the 
 traditions of ease and luxury, but of high aspiration 
 and untiring energy. Was not this indeed an hered- 
 ity whose influence on the young life to come was 
 one of the utmost nobleness? 
 
 It was somewhere about 1835 when Joseph M. 
 Field and Eliza Riddle met as members of the same 
 dramatic company, playing an engagement in Mo- 
 bile, he about twenty-five and she some two years 
 younger. A letter from him to the girl who had 
 become the star of his dreams, bearing no date save 
 that of " Tuesday night," runs thus : — 
 
 My dearest, dearest Love, — Let me call you so. I 
 am so happy and yet so miserable. You don't look so dis- 
 couragingly on me, but I have become a downright coward. 
 In the morning I shall call. When I gave you that little 
 note, you did not reprove me. Oh, I shall hope ! My 
 love, my dear love, do not shut up your heart against me 
 and happiness. I cannot even think what it would be to 
 part with you. They are talking to me of engaging for an- 
 other year, but I can put my mind on nothing but the hope 
 I hold, — that we may arrange our future together. My 
 love, my soul's love, do not be offended. My own dear 
 Eliza, I love you with a pure and honorable love, whose 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 9 
 
 only object is your happiness, and through yours my 
 own. 
 
 You "do not think you will ever marry"! But, my 
 love, if marriage has its cares, what are they but a motive 
 for healthy exertion, a stimulant to employ faculties that 
 otherwise might lapse into inaction. Oh, trust me, Eliza, 
 my sweet friend ! Let me walk by your side all through 
 this life, shielding you from the world's rough ways ; let 
 your heart and hand lie in mine. God bless you, my love, 
 my love ! 
 
 And again this ardent lover writes to the maiden 
 of his choice : — 
 
 My dear Eliza, — You will go away, and what will there 
 be to remind you of me ? . . . I am not happy in what is 
 termed brilliant society ; I am weary of that notoriety and 
 show which is so generally sought by members of our 
 j>rofession. I see the folly of indulging in those dreams 
 and fancies which fill the heads of young men to the exclu- 
 sion of real happiness. I only long for the companionship 
 of the one I love, — yourself. I want to tell all my thoughts 
 to you ; to study and improve myself in your society ; to 
 know that we may mingle all our joys and cares. You say 
 you fear you do not love me with sufficient devotion. Oh, 
 my dear Eliza (pray pardon me), but may not future re- 
 grets make you aware of the true nature of your feelings? 
 I pray to God, my dear Eliza, that regrets may never be 
 yours, whatever becomes of me. ... I have reflected 
 deeply upon the responsibilities. I am even now able to 
 lay by means. I will exert myself, and I feel I could do 
 anything for you, and time must better my fortunes. As 
 for those near claims you have upon you, they shall be to 
 me as my own. I have given my heart to you, Eliza, as a 
 being pure and gentle, with all the qualities that adorn a 
 home. . . . Oh, if you could but love me, all the world 
 
lo Kate Field 
 
 beside may go ! Might we not be most happy together ? 
 I don't care for the dazzle of the world, nor do you. 
 Think, my dear, beloved Eliza, with the approbation of our 
 own hearts, and the esteem of the few whose friendship we 
 value, could we not be most happy? With youth, health, 
 and industry, too, believe me, my dear, dear Eliza, love and 
 competence would bless our union. God bless you ! 
 Your devoted, 
 
 Joe. 
 
 Love, that most intense spiritual potency, cuts its 
 own channel, creates its own conditions, and the lofty 
 tenderness of Joseph Field for the woman of his 
 dreams was no exception to this law. Eliza Riddle 
 turned to him with the utmost consecration of de- 
 votion, and their marriage being celebrated in St. 
 Louis, Mo., in October of 1837, together the hus- 
 band and wife entered on that new world which is the 
 old. Eliza Riddle was then in the first flush of her 
 artistic fame. She made constant advances in her 
 art. Of her Isoline, in "John of Procida," a critic 
 of the time records that it was " a beautiful piece of 
 acting; " that her conception of the character was 
 admirable, and that some of her scenes in the most 
 impassioned passages were executed with a fine in- 
 tensity of feeling and a fidelity to the character por- 
 trayed which had seldom been equalled and never 
 surpassed. Previously to her marriage Mrs. Field 
 had supported Sheridan Knowles, and as Mariana to 
 his St. Pierre, in his play of " The Wife," she inspired 
 an enthusiasm seldom known in those days. 
 
 Happy months came and went, and the first day of 
 October, 1838, was marked for the Fields by the ar- 
 rival of the little daughter on the eve of the Feast of 
 the Holy Angels, which the Catholic Church, into 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 1 1 
 
 which her father was born, celebrates on the second of 
 October. The infant was baptized in the Catholic faith, 
 and received the name of Mary Katherine Keemle, 
 the latter being for Charles Keemle, Mr. Field's 
 nearest friend and business partner in a newspaper 
 that he was about establishing, called " The Reveille." 
 The auspices under which the little maid entered on 
 her terrestrial experiences were full of joyous energy. 
 The union of Mr. and Mrs. Field was indeed a " mar- 
 riage of true minds." He was full of exhilaration, 
 wit, boundless energy, and versatile genius ; a poet, a 
 journalist, an actor, a playwright. She was gentle, 
 loving, with a grace and sweetness peculiarly her 
 own, and with an undercurrent of serene strength of 
 character which her husband safely trusted. The first 
 record that has been preserved of their little daughter 
 is in a letter from Mrs. Field to her husband, appar- 
 ently written in June of 1839, in which she says: 
 
 " Our dear baby has so improved since you left and is so 
 joyous. It 's as much as I can do to keep her in my arms. 
 If she had wings, I really think she would fly. . . . O my 
 dear love, I cannot express the happiness I feel in hearing 
 of your success. . . . You tell me not to be too economical. 
 I do not think that I am. We have no engagement for 
 next season, dear Joe, so it behooves us to be careful. God 
 bless you, my dear love." 
 
 On June 19, 1840, Mr. Field sailed for Europe as 
 correspondent of the New Orleans " Picayune," and 
 also to study the dramatic art of London and Paris. 
 He took with him many important letters of intro- 
 duction, among which was one from George P. Morris 
 to Theodore Fay of the American Legation at Berlin ; 
 and there opened to the young actor a tide of rich 
 
1 2 Kate Field 
 
 opportunities. Mrs. Field writes to her husband 
 soon after his departure that their Httle Kate is a 
 " perfect chatterbox," and that " she courtesies and 
 kisses her hand on leaving a room in the most grace- 
 ful manner." That distinction of presence which was 
 always recognized in Kate Field seemed to manifest 
 itself in her infancy. The psychology of childhood 
 is always fascinating in its speculative data, and, re- 
 membering Kate Field's ardent interest in politics 
 from the time she was a girl of eighteen, one smiles 
 to read, in the fond mother's nursery chronicles, that 
 at the age of eighteen months the little maid was 
 shouting "Tippecanoe," as she danced and laughed, 
 catching the name from a popular ditty of the hour 
 that ran : — 
 
 " Tippecanoe and Tyler too." 
 
 Here was shown that same keen perception that 
 always characterized her. 
 
 On Oct. I, 1 84 1, Mrs. Field writes to her hus- 
 band : — 
 
 " This is Kate's birthday. She sends an hundred kisses 
 to her dear father, and hopes that he will bring her some- 
 thing pretty from Philadelphia. She says of course that 
 father will remember the first of October, that it is his dar- 
 ling little Katy's birthday, that he will bring her something 
 very, very pretty. I was sitting very quietly the other day 
 sewing and thinking of you ; presently I received a thrust 
 in my side. I started up ; there stood Miss Kate with a 
 wooden dagger, shouting at the top of her little voice, ' Die ! 
 Die ! ' waving it above her head. I am wishing you were 
 here to see her little tricks ; there is no end to them. 
 When I told her that you had sent her a dozen kisses, 
 she looked at the letter and kissed it inside and out. 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 1 3 
 
 ' Now,' says she, ' you must give that father, that dear father, 
 a dozen kisses from his darling little Kate.' This morning 
 she rather puzzled me with her questions. She looked up 
 into my face and gravely asked how we came to be made. 
 I replied that God made us. 'Why am I your child if 
 God made me ? ' 'He gave you to me, darling, to be a 
 blessing to your father and mother.' ' Well, I '11 be good, 
 my darling little mother,' — and so this interesting conver- 
 sation ended. What do you think of our little Kate? " 
 
 Mr. Field's letter in reply reveals the tenderness of 
 the father : — 
 
 ..." Your last letter, reminding me that this would be 
 the birthday of our little pet, and containing her little prattle 
 with regard to it, delighted me extremely. Little things 
 become of great consequence sometimes, and Miss Kate 
 being at the distance of a day's journey has wonderfully im- 
 proved in consequence, bless her little heart ! " 
 
 Mr. Field's European visit resulted in a larger out- 
 look for his fortunes, and on his return he and Mrs. 
 Field returned to the St. Charles Theatre in New 
 Orleans at a salary of eighty dollars a week for both, 
 which at that time was considered eminently satisfac- 
 tory. The autumn of 1843 found Mrs. Field with her 
 mother in Boston, while her husband was still playing 
 in the South. Some business perplexities ensued, 
 and the loving wife writes to him : — 
 
 "... You have more resources within yourself than 
 most men, and as long as you are blessed with health I am 
 content. To be sure, I should be much happier if we were 
 together for such loneliness comes over me when you are 
 away. I don't know why, but I never look for considera- 
 tion or sympathy from any one but yourself. You are the 
 
14 Kate Field 
 
 only person in the world with whom I could ever be uncon- 
 strained. . . . Our little Katy is so wild I do not know 
 what to do with her. The little witch is perfectly healthy, 
 and growing more intelligent every day. She was very anx- 
 ious to know last night if the man in the moon would not 
 take cold ; and she says papa is not very polite to stay away 
 so long." 
 
 In January of 1843 Mrs. Field again says of their 
 little daughter in a letter to her husband : I asked 
 Katy if she had anything to say to papa? She replies 
 that she will write for herself, but not just what she 
 wrote in her last letter, for she was certainly sure papa 
 would not like it so well twice. 
 
 Again, in the little girl who was only three months 
 past her fifth birthday is seen the same dawning inde- 
 pendence and self-reliance and a foretaste of the liter- 
 ary discrimination that in later life was so signally her 
 own. One of her own little letters to her father at this 
 time, which his fond love preserved, runs thus : — 
 
 My darling Papa, — I send you a lock of your little 
 Katy's hair. You are to make a bracelet of it, and not give 
 it away, but keep it for yourself. I shall expect you home 
 next week and then I shall dance and sing all day. I send 
 a kiss to my darling papa. 
 
 In February of 1843 a son was born to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Field, the " Little Joe " whose brief life of six 
 years was a rapture of joy to the young father and 
 mother. 
 
 " Little Joe is a true Field and your very image," 
 Mrs. Field writes to the father, who had not yet seen 
 his little son. " He has Katy's eyes and her delicate 
 lands and feet," continues Mrs. Field. " Katy is as 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 1 5 
 
 independent as ever, and I could not write in all day 
 the funny things the little sprite says." 
 
 The beautiful spirit of Eliza Field is reflected in 
 every word she writes. As this : — 
 
 My dear Love, — I have received the check for ^60. 
 It came in good time. I look forward to every letter of 
 yours with the greatest happiness. Little Joe will be five 
 weeks old to-morrow. Oh, my dear husband, it is hard for 
 us to be parted at this time, but your little wife tries to be 
 brave and we will be all the happier when we do meet, and 
 you can take Katy and our darling son in your arms. My 
 dear love, as I write this, your letter with check for ^100 
 comes. How thoughtful you are, and, oh, if you can only 
 keep your health, we shall be so happy with our sweet chil- 
 dren. Katy sends a hundred kisses to her darling papa. 
 
 This was the sweet atmosphere of refinement and 
 love into which Kate Field was born. Her earliest 
 impressions were those of honorable aspiration, de- 
 voted love, and a sweet reasonableness regarding all 
 the vicissitudes of life. 
 
 The autumn of 1844 was marked to the Fields by 
 a great sorrow in the death of Mr. Field's brother 
 Matthew, whose gentle and poetic nature endeared 
 him to all whom he met. In those days there was a 
 famous theatrical firm known as Ludlow and Smith, 
 and a daughter of Mr. Ludlow became the wife of 
 Matt Field. The two brothers had been famiharly 
 known to the press as " Straws " and " Phasma," and 
 both had written much verse, some of which is not 
 without genuine poetic quality. Matt Field, as he 
 was always called, was for years in delicate health 
 with bronchial trouble, but his death came with the 
 same startling suddenness that was afterward to be 
 
1 6 Kate Field 
 
 the fate of his brother Joseph, and of Kate, his niece. 
 Leaving his young wife and two little children in St. 
 Louis, he went to New York, hoping that a sea voyage 
 would restore his health. Embarking on Nov. 13, 
 1844, he died at midnight of the following day and 
 was buried at sea. During his last evening his talk 
 had been full of brightness and repartee. The cap- 
 tain of the steamer came to his stateroom, and sitting 
 just outside the door read to Mr. Field for some time. 
 At last, speaking to him and receiving no reply, he 
 arose and turned to the berth only to find the invalid 
 unconscious, and within an hour his spirit had taken 
 flight. The surviving brother expressed his grief in 
 a poem entitled "A Sigh for Phasma," in which occur 
 such lines as these : — 
 
 '' Complainings gentle, musical, and low — 
 Thy mystic harp, November — Here around 
 Mingle the sad vibrations. The dull words 
 Breathe their last dirge for summer, their adieu 
 To all they love of beauty, all their wealth 
 Of vernal shelter, all their tenant throngs. 
 Their hymn of patience, their deep sigh of love." 
 
 These lines are a typical illustration of Mr. Field's 
 poetic gift, which was not unlike that of Bryant, save 
 in degree. Mr. Field had, however, another vein of 
 wit and rollicking fun, which was almost equally in 
 evidence, and there were in him, as in his daughter, 
 varying gifts which were at times mutually exclusive. 
 
 About this time (1844-45) Mr. Field became asso- 
 ciated with Mr. Charles Keemle in the publication of 
 the St. Louis " Reveille." Five years later their office 
 was destroyed in the great fire that swept over St. 
 Louis, even destroying steamboats moored on the 
 river, but the mercurial spirits of Mr. Field rose to 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 1 7 
 
 new endeavor, and he turned from the very smoke of 
 the ruins to write a comedy which proved successful. 
 He also collected a volume of his sketches with the 
 hope that Messrs. Little, Brown, and Co. of Boston 
 would publish it; but when they declined, as their 
 house was then dealing exclusively in legal works, he 
 applied to a Philadelphia house that ofifered him 
 $250 for the volume outright, which he accepted. 
 Not the least fortunate characteristic of Mr. Field 
 was his power of instantaneous decision, wasting no 
 energy in hesitation and doubt. Mrs. Field accepted 
 an engagement at the St. Charles Theatre in New 
 Orleans, taking her two little children with her. She 
 writes to her husband : — 
 
 My dearest Husband, — You would think me childish if 
 I were to tell you how much I love you, how constantly 
 you occupy my thoughts. I have a thousand hopes, — a 
 thousand fears. I fear some accident may have happened 
 to you ; that you may be ill, and I not there to nurse you ; 
 that you may work too hard and so hurt your health ; that 
 you have not those comforts about you that you ought to 
 have. Then, again, I am so happy in your love. I know 
 you love me as dearly as I love you, and 't is so delightful 
 to think that we feel so towards each other. You are my 
 world ; my thoughts, feelings, affections, are all centred in 
 you. I love my children very dearly, but not as I love you. 
 They may leave me by-and-by ; but if you are spared and 
 love me, I can never feel lonely. 
 
 A loving mother's details of her children and life 
 and Katy's studies fill every letter. 
 
 The parents were even at this time much occupied 
 with thoughts and plans, for their daughter Kate was 
 a brilliant child already, with a kind of inscrutable 
 
1 8 Kate Field 
 
 individuality of her own, with a passionate love of 
 music, and hardly less devotion to literary pursuits. 
 " Katy is very fond of writing," records her mother 
 in a letter when the little girl was some eight years 
 of age. And again in a letter to her sister (Mrs. 
 Sanford), Mrs. Field writes: — 
 
 " Katy is getting along finely with her studies. She is 
 as fond of books and study as her father. She is a good, 
 strange child. I think she will make a fine woman. I 
 hope she will not be spoiled ; but it is very difficult in the 
 West to keep girls like Kate away from flattery. I hope she 
 will have the good sense to withstand it. She is very quick, 
 very observing, for one of her age." 
 
 The dancing-master from whom Kate had lessons 
 while with her mother in New Orleans wished his 
 pupils to give a dance, and in the winter of 1848-49 
 Mrs. Field writes to her husband : — 
 
 " Katy was so anxious to go that I consented. I had no 
 idea a few days before the ball that the children were to be 
 invited. Katy was dressed simply (in a frock she had 
 last winter), and looked and danced prettily. I think she 
 was the most lady-like of the crowd. She is getting very 
 self-willed, however, and I find it hard to manage her. She 
 says if her father were here she is sure he would not deny 
 her. I may be wrong ; I think I am rightt Tell me in 
 your next what you think of it. Kate values your opinion. 
 The perfect freedom she had last winter was an injury to 
 her. She says ' if I will allow her to go to parties this 
 winter, — that is, children's parties, — she will not ask to 
 go again until she is a young lady.' I fear it would make 
 her a young lady too soon. Katy is rather impatient of 
 control ; I do not like to refuse her ; I know it gives her a 
 great deal of pleasure. ' I must be cruel only to be kind.' 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 1 9 
 
 If you do not agree with me, say so. I told Kate I would 
 write to you on this subject. She will be anxious to hear your 
 opinion. I do not blame her ; it is perfectly natural at her 
 age to desire pleasure. I do not wish her to be selfish ; I 
 fear that more than anything else. 'T is bedtime ; good- 
 night, my own dear love j I will go to sleep and dream of 
 you." 
 
 The strength of will which sometimes, even in her 
 womanhood, degenerated into mere wilfulness, is 
 shown in the young girl in this transcript. Yet 
 around her was the wise and sweet and unselfish 
 care of this ideal mother; but life's experiences, 
 which must be individual for each and every one, 
 were already beginning for Kate Field. Uncon- 
 sciously circumstances were educating and moulding 
 her nature. The impetuosity of her temperament 
 caused her father serious thought, and he was anxious 
 again to reunite his family in a home, feeling it pecu- 
 liarly essential for Kate that she should be in a more 
 quiet and regular life; for even before the age of 
 twelve the little girl was recognized as so exceptional 
 in gifts and temperament as to require the most 
 judicious care. 
 
 Jenny Lind was entrancing America with her voice, 
 and Kate's artistic temperament was aglow with en- 
 thusiasm. To her mother in Mobile she writes, under 
 date of St. Louis, Feb. 22, 1849 : — 
 
 Dear Mother, — I received a letter from you a few 
 days ago, and would have answered it before, but have not 
 had time. You said that Jenny was expected in Mobile. 
 If you meet her, tell her to call on me when she comes to 
 St. Louis and take me to hear her sing. She will be here 
 in March and you will not be up here, and I shall not hear 
 
20 Kate Field 
 
 Jenny Lind ; it is too bad. How much will Father gain by 
 Jenny Lind's being in Mobile? I am enjoying very good 
 health. Give my best love and a kiss to Father, and tell 
 him to come up soon. Give my love to all my relations. 
 Your little daughter, 
 
 Kate. 
 
 There was an explosion of a ferryboat here yesterday, 
 and killed about 25 and wounded about eight. It was a 
 dreadful thing, but you will read it in the papers. 
 
 This letter for a girl of eleven is in nowise remark- 
 able; but it indicates the temperament that always 
 believed in its own right of way, and shows how early 
 her habit of being interested in affairs asserted itself. 
 In another letter about this date she writes to her 
 mother : — 
 
 "Is the theatre doing a good business now? I hope it 
 is. Has any person written in my album ? Is Father well ? 
 Are you in good health? I went to a Practising Party last 
 night, and I had a great deal of pleasure. I love to dance 
 so much. I never get tired. I think I am improving in 
 Drawing very much. I think it is a beautiful art, and I love 
 it very much. I am half way through Racine, and I can 
 translate very well, but the difficulty is to speak the lan- 
 guage ; I can read and write French and understand it nearly 
 always when it is spoken, but the difficulty is for me to 
 speak it. I saw two books at the store that I want. They 
 are ' Bleak House ' and ' Dombey and Son,' in the same 
 binding as my 'David Copperfield.' " 
 
 Remembering her intense appreciation of Dickens 
 in her after life, and the "Pen Photographs" she 
 wrote of his famous readings in Boston, this childish 
 reference is not without interest. In a letter of some- 
 what later date she wrote to her mother: — 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 2 1 
 
 "To my great joy, I took two letters out of the office 
 this afternoon, and both were from my best friend. You 
 well know who that friend is. I shall indeed endeavor to 
 profit by your most excellent advice, dearest mother. I 
 have often thought of the spirit of my angel brother being 
 near me, and how grieved he must be when I have com- 
 mitted a wrong action ; when I have shown my ugly temper 
 to you, my Mother, whom I ought always to obey with 
 cheerfulness \ who has sacrificed everything for a child 
 who, in return, has made her sorrow again and again for 
 her disobedience. May the angel one, as well as you and 
 father, be able to find me gradually and gradually improv- 
 ing in disposition, and becoming less selfish. I do not 
 want you to read the letter I wrote Christmas week ; it 
 was in a very ugly spirit, and I was sorry I sent it. I do 
 not think as I wrote in that letter, and I am sure it shows 
 no improvement in me. 
 
 " I am sorry you did not receive my Christmas presents 
 except that which Tom gave you. He was very thoughtful. 
 Did the birds taste nice ? Did you give the children any- 
 thing? I shall give John the five dollars to-morrow morn- 
 ing, in your name. I shall have to keep one dollar for 
 myself." 
 
 Somewhere about this time Mr. Field received 
 this characteristic letter from Edgar Allan Poe, 
 who, under date of June 15, 1846, thus writes 
 from New York to his friend Mr. Field, in St. 
 Louis : — 
 
 Dear Field, — I have frequently seen in the "Reveille" 
 notices of myself evincing a friendly feeling on your part, 
 which, believe me, I reciprocate in the most cordial . man- 
 ner. I enclose an article from the New York " Mirror " of 
 May 26, headed " Mr. Poe, the New York Literati." The 
 attack is editorial. . . . 
 
2 2 Kate Field 
 
 All that I venture to ask of you is to say a few words 
 in condemnation of it, and to do away with the false im- 
 pression of my personal appearance that it conveys in those 
 parts of the country where I am not individually known. 
 You have seen me and can describe me as I am. Will you 
 do me this act of justice? I know you will. There is also 
 an incidental service just now which you have it in your 
 power to render me. That is to put the following, editori- 
 ally, into your paper : — 
 
 "The British literary journals are admitting Mr. Poe's 
 merit in the most unequivocal manner. . . . ' The Raven ' 
 is copied in full in the ' British Critic ' and in the ' Athe- 
 nseum.' The world's greatest poetess, Elizabeth Barrett, 
 says of Mr. Poe : ' This vivid writing, this power which is 
 felt. The Raven has produced a sensation, a fit honor, 
 here in England. Some of my friends are taken by the 
 music, and some by other qualities, but all are taken. I 
 ' hear of persons absolutely haunted by the Nevermore ; 
 and an acquaintance of mine who has the misfortune to 
 possess a bust of Pallas never can bear to look at it in 
 the twilight. Our great poet, Mr. Browning, the author of 
 Paracelsus, The Pomegranates, etc., is enthusiastic in his 
 admiration of the rhythm.' " 
 
 After all this, Mr. Poe may possibly make up his mind 
 to endure the disapprobation of the editor of the " Mirror." 
 If you can oblige me in this case, depend upon my most 
 earnest reciprocation when and where and how you 
 please. 
 
 Cordially yours, 
 
 Edgar A. Poe. 
 
 P. S. — Please cut out anything you may say and send 
 me in a letter. A newspaper is not so likely to reach me. 
 I have been very seriously ill for some months, and being 
 thus utterly unable to defend myself, must rely upon the 
 chivalry of my friends. 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 2 3 
 
 There could be no more characteristic expression 
 of Poe than this letter, revealing all his childish petu- 
 lance and suspicion of nature, his intense self-love, 
 always tortured by fancied slights, and his genuine 
 enthusiasm for literature and due care for his poetic 
 reputation. 
 
 This letter Kate had always treasured carefully. 
 After her death it was given by the friend to 
 whom all her manuscripts were committed to Mr. 
 Edmund Clarence Stedman, whose friendship was 
 one of the most important influences in her life, 
 and in acknowledgment he wrote to the donor of 
 the letter : — 
 
 " You have quite touched my heart and taken my breath 
 away. . . . Well, I have Poe's best daguerreotype and a 
 famous Poe MS., and I need just this letter to go with them 
 to make my Memorial complete." 
 
 Poe's reference in this letter to Elizabeth Barrett 
 recalls the fact that after her marriage he sent to 
 Mrs. Browning a volume of his poems dedicated to 
 her, with a letter, in which he celebrates her as the 
 noblest of her sex. Mrs. Browning laughed at this 
 expression, and, narrating Poe's fervors to Mr. Ken- 
 yon, she said: "What could I say in reply, indeed, 
 when called 'the noblest of my sex,' except ' Sir, you 
 are the most discerning of yours.' " 
 
 The winter of 1850 found Mr. Field's desire to 
 unite his family in a settled home partially fulfilled, 
 in that Mrs. Field and her children were together in 
 St. Louis, although Mr. Field was playing in Mobile. 
 To his daughter, under date of February 4, 1850, he 
 writes : — 
 
24 Kate Field 
 
 My own dear Daughter, — I address this letter exclu- 
 sively to you, partly because I have not yet sent you a letter 
 " all to yourself" and partly because your dear mother may 
 have started on her vi^ay to me. If she set out before the 
 receipt of my remittances, you must turn business vjroman 
 yourself, look after the money, and keep an account of 
 sums paid out. 
 
 This was quite a commission for a girl of twelve. 
 Mr. Field continues : — 
 
 My dear child, your mother evinces much anxiety with 
 regard to your fancy for balls and parties. Of course your 
 desire is natural and unobjectionable when indulged only in 
 a proper degree, but I should think that opportunities of 
 enjoyment would present themselves often enough among 
 our own personal friends — where you would not be with- 
 drawn from the company of your mother — to satisfy you. 
 Believe me, my dearest child, an early habit of curbing 
 hasty inclinations is the most valuable of all the elements 
 of personal character, and will conduce more to your life- 
 long happiness than anything else which you may acquire. 
 I want to see you gay and sportive ; so does your mother, 
 but not to a degree which renders you cross and sullen 
 under wholesome restriction. You are a dear, good, intelli- 
 gent, and loving child ; the hopes of our heart rest on you ; 
 your future progress and happiness are all that we look for- 
 ward to, and with all a father's affection I tell you that you 
 have in your mother one of the noblest models that ever 
 lived. If you would be a true and Christian woman, loved and 
 admired as a credit to your sex, emulate the kindness and the 
 single-mindedness of your first friend, your fondest protector. 
 
 You have asked me, my dear Katy, so rasioy-humired 
 questions, I believe, that not having your letter by me (I 
 am writing in the office) I know not what to say. They 
 have principally, however, been inquiries as to health and 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 25 
 
 happiness of relatives and friends, and I am happy to say 
 that, as far as I know, they are all well. Business this win- 
 ter has been very good, and I trust to open in St. Louis 
 under very favorable circumstances. You must remember 
 me most kindly to the Cutlers, to Mrs. Randolph, and all 
 inquirers. Go on with your lessons, and take in season 
 your youthful " fun," as you call it. Grow up an intelUgent, 
 discreet, and benevolent young woman, and your friends 
 will not be confined to this world ; those who have left us 
 for a happier land will hold their hands in blessing and 
 protection over you. God bless you, my dear, dear daugh- 
 ter. Your affectionate father. 
 
 The summer of 1851 found Mr. and Mrs. Field re- 
 united in their own home in St. Louis, and their plan?* 
 for the ensuing season are revealed in a letter of 
 Kate's written to a cousin in New Orleans, under 
 date of Sept. 7, 185 1. Her father was then having his 
 own theatre built, and the little girl writes : — 
 
 "The theatre is progressing rapidly now, but it will not 
 be finished before spring. We are all perfectly delighted 
 with housekeeping, and mother and father say they will 
 never board again if they can help it. I am not to attend 
 school this winter. I shall practise three hours a day, take 
 care of the parlor, study my French lessons, and father says 
 I must begin drawing soon ; so that I shall have enough to 
 attend to. Father intends leaving the house with some 
 friends, and let me remain here, paying my board, so in all 
 probability I shall be here this winter. I shall be thirteen 
 on the first of next October at one o'clock, so when you sit 
 at dinner on this day you can remember it is my birthday." 
 
 Kate had been attending a school in St. Louis 
 known as " Mrs. Smith's Seminary," where for three 
 years she took the prize in composition and penman- 
 
26 Kate Field 
 
 ship, and her childish " compositions " of that period, 
 still preserved, tied with the blue ribbon that invested 
 literary efforts in those days, incite a smile. On one 
 is inscribed, " Mary Kate Field, aged eleven," and its 
 subject is "Three Scenes in the Life of a Schoolgirl," 
 — a subject indicative of that dramatic turn which 
 always persisted in her writings. 
 
 "What shall these three scenes be?" (questions the 
 youthful writer) . " My first recollections of school are 
 very indistinct, as I was very young. The first day I went 
 to school I went alone, as my mother was engaged. I 
 think the entrance into a new school ought to be the first 
 scene. . . . Suppose we take for the second that in which 
 a girl is not perfect in her lessons, and she stammers and 
 hems and haws, and if she is kept in she will say to her 
 companions, ' Did you ever see such a stiff, starched 
 teacher ?'...! shall take for the third scene that in 
 which the industrious girl receives the prize. She is en- 
 couraged by this to carry on what she has begun, and often 
 rises to fame and fortune." 
 
 The intense personal ambition in Kate Field's 
 nature is also foreshadowed in this last line. When 
 she was four years of age she ran away and entered 
 herself as a pupil of a Miss Shaw, who had a little 
 infant school. At the age of seven she entered the 
 " Seminary" of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and a year later 
 she wrote to a cousin: " I have just begun to learn 
 how to sing. I have got as far as Chili in geography, 
 and I am at the indicative mood in grammar." 
 Again, under date of Feb. 28, 1849, Katy writes to 
 her aunt : — 
 
 " You have requested me to write to you, and it gives 
 me a great deal of pleasure to comply with the request. . . . 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 2 7 
 
 I have been reading ' Masterman Ready, or a Shipwreck 
 on the Pacific Coast.' It is a very interesting story, but the 
 worst of it is I cannot get the third volume. A gentleman 
 whom I know has gone to California, and promises to send 
 me two barrels of gold dust ; if he should do so, I shall be 
 very rich and shall do great wonders, but I do not believe 
 he will, so I need not make such great calculations about it. 
 I have related to you all the interesting news I can think of." 
 
 In all this childish writing her keen observation of 
 details is evident, mingled too with a tendency to re- 
 flection that is quaint. " Knowledge is a benignant 
 genius," opens one of her efforts. " She bids us fol- 
 low and obtain the key to unlock the mysteries of 
 nature." Here may be the dawning of the disposi- 
 tion which in her womanhood led her to interview 
 Dr. Schliemann and, later on, Edison, and strive to 
 pluck out for herself the mysteries in archeology and 
 in inventions. 
 
 The idolized son of Mr. and Mrs. Field died in St. 
 Louis of cholera, before his seventh birthday, and the 
 tender mother's care for her only remaining child be- 
 came thus more ardent. On the New Year following 
 the death of " Little Joe," Mrs. Field writes to her 
 husband : — 
 
 " Good-morning, my own dear husband, a Happy New 
 Year to you. How much I should like to see you on this 
 day of all others. This is the first New Year I have passed 
 here since the loss of our own little darling angel boy. Well, 
 I will not be sad. I have so much to be grateful for. Per- 
 haps if I am happy on this day, I maybe happy all the year." 
 
 Mr. Field's letters to his wife were full of the same 
 exquisite ardor and affection that breathed through 
 hers, and from Mobile he writes to her : — 
 
28 Kate Field 
 
 My own sweet Wife, — Your joint letter, yours and 
 Katy's, are just received. Let me first speak to you. I am 
 afraid, my dearest love, that you will have become embar- 
 rassed for money before the receipt of my remittance. 
 It was my hope to be able to send you the money by this 
 present time, but business is slack and salary day to- 
 morrow. The Logans here now are not attractive, but Lola 
 Montez opens next Monday for a few nights, and she will 
 excite curiosity. I will then send. I am very busy, playing 
 every night, tragedy and comedy, and, strange to say, every- 
 body seems struck with my serious efforts. I think myself 
 I have improved in self-possession and also in earnestness, 
 — the necessary result. I play " Ingomar " night after 
 next. The company is very good, and all acknowledge it. 
 My dear wife, as to propriety of appearances, your good 
 taste and sense must guide you. Should your health or 
 spirits require it, come, come to me, my dear wife. With 
 the fondest and truest affection, I dwell upon your good- 
 ness and devotion and love. God bless you. 
 
 To Kate he vs^rites : — 
 
 " My dear daughter, when you wish to visit the theatre, 
 your dear mother assenting, you must go. You must hear 
 all the musicians. Pursue your studies, my dear child, but 
 recreation, particularly in the guise of music, is little less 
 than instruction itself. You promised to write me a letter 
 in ' the finest of French.' This will do you no harm to try. 
 God bless you, my daughter, and keep you in health and 
 happiness ! " 
 
 Kate Field's strong individuality began to express 
 itself in her early childhood in many directions. She 
 was the very incarnation of the artistic intensity of the 
 life and environment into which she was born : she 
 was full of radiant joy, and yet, even in her dawning 
 
Childhood and Circumsiance 29 
 
 girlhood, the vein of deep intellectual power and a 
 certain wistful reflection began to make itself felt. A 
 journal, whose first date is of August 2, 1852, thus 
 opens : — 
 
 " I have finally resolved in my own mind to commence a 
 journal and write regularly each day. I never tried before 
 except when I was in New Orleans, and then I made such 
 foolish work of it that I have never had the courage since 
 to begin another." 
 
 This self-critical habit was always characteristic of 
 her. She had the curious power to view herself ob- 
 jectively, as if the higher self kept continual watch 
 over its lower manifestations. The record of this 
 little maid of thirteen runs on : — 
 
 "I arose very late this morning — seven o'clock, I am 
 ashamed to acknowledge, but it was a rainy day. I had 
 hardly finished my breakfast when Monsieur le Docteur 
 Xampi came to give me une legon franqaise, which I knew 
 very well. Then I practised as usual. Went out at eleven 
 and got some pens and paper for mother, and at the same 
 time I got this blank book, which cost me 35 cents, and 
 in which I shall record my thoughts. I have heard a great 
 many say that there is a great probability of Benton being 
 elected. The ' Republican,' speaking of him the other day, 
 says that Colonel Benton is the best abused person they 
 have known for years." . . . 
 
 The intense interest in political affairs expressed 
 in her after life seems to reveal its dawning in the 
 young girl. Her love of nature is evinced, too, in 
 the opening line of the next day's record, where she 
 says : — 
 
30 Kate Field 
 
 " Such a beautiful day ! I longed all day to be out in 
 the country, and do nothing but play and enjoy myself. I 
 suppose some people would say I am too old to play. I 
 entirely differ with such persons. I do not believe in mak- 
 ing an old woman out of a little girl. I, not quite thirteen, 
 consider myself quite a little girl, and intend to act accord- 
 ingly. Many say to me, 'This is the happiest time of your 
 life.' But business before pleasure. The election is over, 
 and the Democrats are victorious, to the chagrin of the 
 Whigs. Colonel Benton is as popular as ever he was 
 among a certain class of individuals, who are termed the 
 rabble." 
 
 Another day records the visitation of several little 
 friends for a concert party, and then a sudden illness 
 of her father. She writes : — 
 
 " Reading over some scraps in the evening, I found some 
 verses which father wrote, and I will include them here. 
 He calls the poem ' A Calculation.' 
 
 " ' Four hundred million breaths make up 
 The term of human life, 
 And millions draw the air of heaven 
 In pain, in loss, in strife.' " 
 
 The theatre which her father owned at this time 
 was a prominent factor in her amusements, and she 
 chronicles the visit with a party of her little friends 
 to a box, where the loving mother sent in ice-cream 
 and cake to them. 
 
 She continued to copy in her journal verses written 
 by her father; and on a Sunday morning, when she 
 heard Rev. Dr. William Eliot speak on Immortality, 
 she writes of it and of a tenor solo that enchanted 
 her. French, music, and drawing occupied her morn- 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 3 1 
 
 ings. Spiritualism, in the modern sense, was just 
 dawning in those days ; and the little Katy, who 
 seemed to catch everything that was in the air, 
 chronicles a rudimentary discussion she had with a 
 girl friend, and she adds : — 
 
 " Father then said, ' How is it, then, when you receive 
 communication that you do not ask and have not the least 
 idea about or the persons present ? ' Mary said she ' did 
 not know, but the spirits said so.' Electricity is then intel- 
 ligent, which no person ever was aware of before." 
 
 This speculative idea of electricity being intelligent 
 she evidently expresses in a half sarcastic and half 
 wondering way, as if she caught some foregleam of 
 the marvellous power destined within another half- 
 century to be revealed to man. 
 
 Kate's journal runs on : — 
 
 "August 12. Rose early and read the 'Republican,' 
 which is very interesting, being full of politics. Mother 
 took me to a minister to see if he would take me as a pupil 
 in September, and he will. I do not know what the reason 
 is, but I would not go back to Mrs. Smith's school on 
 any account. My French lesson to-day was on Napoleon 
 Bonaparte. 
 
 "August 13. Mr. Simpson came early in the morning to 
 see if I could come to his studio so that he could work on 
 my portrait again. I sat for him from ten until one, and it 
 was tiresome work. I wrote a letter to Bessie, and sent in it 
 some pressed flowers and a lock of my hair. Emma Crow 
 came for me to go home with her. We went into the theatre 
 to ask mother, who consented, and at Wayman Crow's house 
 we went up to the third story and played till Mary Eliot 
 came in." 
 
32 Kate Field 
 
 On another day Kate copied this stanza, and com- 
 ments on it: — 
 
 " ' Many a shaft at random sent 
 
 Finds mark the archer Httle meant, 
 
 And many a word at random spoken 
 
 May soothe or wound a heart that is broken.' 
 
 " How true this little piece of poetry ! I know it by 
 experience." 
 
 This extreme sensitiveness of the child only deep- 
 ened rather than lessened in the woman, and as it was 
 fully equalled by her reticence, only those nearest her 
 in sympathetic intuition ever divined all she felt. 
 
 Of a little theatre party of her young friends at her 
 father's theatre she writes : — 
 
 " We secured a nice box in the second circle. The first 
 piece was the ' Corsican Brothers,' which is perfectly beauti- 
 ful. Father personated the two Brothers, and mother the 
 character of Emilie. The spectres were beautifully got up. 
 The evening concluded with the comic ballet of the ' Bar- 
 ber's Troubles,' in which Espinosa caused a great deal of 
 laughter. ... I am reading ' Uncle Tom's Cabin,' which is 
 creating a furore. I finished it before tea. I do not think 
 that the things that she related in the book ever happened. 
 It is too highly wrought. I cried for half an hour when I 
 came to Eva's death ; and poor Uncle Tom, I was so sorry 
 that Mrs. Stowe made him die where she did." 
 
 The period of 1852-53 was an interlude of quiet do- 
 mestic happiness in that Mr. and Mrs. Field enjoyed 
 the unusual and hitherto unprecedented experience 
 of a settled home. Mr. Field was the actor-manager 
 of his own theatre, his wife playing with him almost 
 constantly, and the open, sunny hospitality of their 
 home makes a picture that tempts one to linger over 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 33 
 
 it. Their house, near the corner of Sixth Avenue and 
 Market Street, was only a few steps from the theatre, 
 which stood on the site now marked by the opera 
 house in St. Louis. On the fa9ade of the new 
 structure are the dates of the opening and close of 
 Mr. Field's theatre. The house in which they lived is 
 still standing, a two-story dwelling painted brown, and 
 St. Louis friends point out the windows of the room 
 occupied by Kate in her early girlhood. The Way- 
 man Crows and the family of Rev. Dr. William Eliot, 
 who became the Chancellor of Washington Univer- 
 sity, were the nearest friends of the Fields. The best 
 society in St. Louis was then, as now, marked by 
 particular refinement and choice culture, and the gifts 
 and charm of Mr. and Mrs. Field were appreciated. 
 It was a very congenial atmosphere to the little 
 daughter, with her keen intellect, her artistic bent, 
 and her social instincts. It was even too stimulat- 
 ing for so delicately organized a girl, and all her life 
 Kate Field suffered from that intense nervous self- 
 consciousness whose best name is perhaps stage- 
 fright. This is revealed in the girl of thirteen in a 
 letter to her Aunt Corda, when she says : — 
 
 "Aunt Corda, you do not know how foolish I am. I 
 may know a piece of music perfectly, and if one asks me to 
 play I make mistakes throughout the entire piece. I am 
 trying to conquer it." 
 
 In March, 1853, Mr. and Mrs. Field, returning from 
 New Orleans to St. Louis, were twelve days en route, 
 and as Mr. Field was in haste to open his theatre, the 
 Vari^t^s, with Lola Montez, the annoyance in this 
 delay can be imagined. Kate writes to her Aunt 
 Corda : — 
 
 3 
 
34 Kate Field 
 
 " Well, Lola Montez appeared at father's theatre last 
 night for the first time. The theatre was crowded from 
 parquette to doors. She had the most beautiful eye I ever 
 saw. I like her very much, but she performed a dumb girl, 
 so I cannot say what she may do in speaking characters or 
 as a danseuse. She is trying to trouble father as much as 
 possible. Madame Anna Shellon is here, and will com- 
 mence her engagement as soon as the countess leaves. You 
 must know that father has adopted the starring system this 
 season. He has been very successful at Mobile. The 
 theatre there is still open. Father had a silver salver 
 together with four goblets presented to him by the citizens 
 of Mobile." 
 
 A little later Kate again writes to her aunt : — 
 
 " What do you think of Ole Bull ? We do not hear any- 
 thing of Jenny Lind now ; I wonder if she will return to 
 America. Do you think that Sontag is equal to her? I 
 am improving very much in music and French, so my 
 teachers say. I have translated Racine and the first vol- 
 ume of Molifere. In Music I have Bertini's Instruction 
 Book, and my pieces are now sonatas by Chopin, which are 
 very hard for me. My teacher does not allow me to play 
 waltzes, polkas, or anything of that description. He has 
 sent to Germany for a grand piano, which will be here early 
 in January. What a loss Mr. Chickering must have sustained 
 by the total destruction of his piano manufactory ! Father 
 has been gone six weeks ; very nearly half the time of his 
 absence has passed away. I think he intends opening the 
 theatre here by the middle of March. Lola Montez is in 
 Mobile now. Do you like Strakosch? Have you read 
 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'? I think it is an entirely one-sided 
 affair. She makes the colored individuals perfection. I 
 should like to have such a little negro as Topsy. Would 
 not you? The Pacific Railroad is in operation for fifteen 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 35 
 
 miles and that great work is rapidly going on. How is Mr. 
 Sanford's health? You must give my best love to him. I 
 should like to visit you next summer and then go to the 
 World's Fair in New York." 
 
 In January, 1853, Mrs. Field writes to her husband 
 in Mobile : — 
 
 St. Louis, Jan. 21, 1853. 
 My own dear, hasty, impulsive Husband, — You know I 
 had made up my mind to remain here this winter, that it 
 was for the best. Your letter of the ninth which I received 
 yesterday has so unsettled my thoughts and feelings. One 
 moment I feel I ought not to go and leave Kate — the 
 house — they will all miss me so much, it seems selfish. 
 The next moment I feel that I could not wait until spring, 
 although it is not far off now. This is not right, my own 
 dear husband, or wise, to tempt your little wife in this way. 
 You know how much I love you, how much I long to see 
 you, to be with you. I am so happy and delighted to re- 
 ceive this proof of your affection that it makes me wish I 
 could fly into your arms and kiss you a thousand times for 
 it. Poor Kate looks very sad and unwilling to let me off, 
 although she says, ' if father wishes it, of course go.' Her 
 face has been very long since the arrival of your letter. I 
 wish you would write her a letter addressed to her, for her- 
 self alone. I think she feels a little hurt that you have not 
 done so. She said this morning that she did not think her 
 father cared so much about seeing her. 
 
 About this time Katy pasted in her journal a 
 printed slip that enjoined its readers " aWays to 
 speak the truth ; keep your own secrets if you have 
 any; if any one speaks ill of you, let your life be 
 such that no one will believe him," et cetera; and 
 she comments thus : — 
 
36 Kate Field 
 
 " I think that if every person follows what is on this little 
 piece of printed paper, we would do well. I intend here- 
 after to try and keep my own secrets. I got through late 
 in the afternoon. I went to the theatre and staid until the 
 first piece was out, which was Job and his children, written 
 by father. It is a beautiful piece." 
 
 She finds a sermon on " Doing Good," and copies 
 it entire in her journal. And, again, this girl of thir- 
 teen copies in her journal : — 
 
 " When troubles flow upon you, dark and heavy, toil not 
 with the waves, wrestle not with the torrent, — rather seek 
 by occupation to divert the dark waters that threaten to 
 overwhelm you into a thousand channels, which the duties 
 of life always present." 
 
 All these extracts indicate the trend of life for the 
 gifted, thoughtful young girl, whose spirit is already 
 unconsciously confronting the experiences that await 
 her in the future years, — " the sorrows that were 
 to be." This gift of prescience was born with her 
 and increased and deepened with years. Her father's 
 imaginative genius, her mother's spirituality, both 
 blended in this gift of their daughter. Mr. Field was 
 an idealist and poet. His supreme aim in life was 
 the elevation of the drama, and for this he strove with 
 every energy; and as a friend who knew him well 
 said, he "ruined his health, broke his heart, and 
 emptied his pocket-book," in this effort, - — words that 
 would literally describe the close of his daughter's 
 life regarding the work which had become her own 
 treasured ideal. But we must not anticipate. The 
 poet and the prophet have here no continuing city; 
 but still it is forever good to live with lofty aims, and 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 37 
 
 there is no real failure in life except the failure to 
 keep faith with our ideals. Both Joseph Field and 
 his daughter Kate kept theirs unfalteringly, and no 
 poverty of the purse can make poor when there is no 
 poverty of the spirit. 
 
 The summer of 1853 was passed by the Fields in 
 St. Louis. The school year then continued into mid- 
 summer, and Kate was diligently at work. In this, 
 her fifteenth year, she was already very much of a 
 young lady, very studious, very much given to hold- 
 ing opinions, and quite in her element as a mentor to 
 a young cousin, whose manners and pursuits she 
 directed with a girlish autocracy that held its hints of 
 the little imperiousness of manner which was always 
 associated with her. She was very independent, and 
 inclined to regard her own way as one from which 
 there could be no appeal. The only child, and 
 cherished with even renewed tenderness after the 
 death of her brother, she was naturally the idol of 
 the household, and Kate's wishes and interests, from 
 her early morning rising to her retiring at night, were 
 the important matters to which all else deferred. She 
 was an early riser, and the series of ideal methods 
 of living which attended her always is seen even 
 in her earliest childhood. At this time she was a 
 devotee of cold baths ; a very delicate girl, she sub- 
 jected herself to a severer regimen than was favorable 
 to good health, but she had always a firmness of pur- 
 pose, and was absolutely unrelenting with herself in 
 any system she set out to practise. Very slender 
 and graceful, with a wealth of chestnut hair falling in 
 clustering curls, with her fair complexion and lumi- 
 nous blue eyes, she was a figure to haunt the imagina- 
 tion. One is tempted to linger on this threshold of 
 
38 Kate Field 
 
 her womanhood, — the eager, impetuous girl, so richly 
 gifted, and who was attracted in so many directions 
 that the concentration on any single one seemed im- 
 possible. She had learned to dance almost as soon 
 as she had learned to walk, and she had this constant 
 poetry of motion. She had a pride of personal 
 appearance, too, and each morning, immediately after 
 breakfast, she seated herself, book in hand, for her 
 rich masses of hair to be dressed. Elizabeth, the 
 seamstress, whose specialty was to keep Mrs. Field's 
 stage costumes in order and attend to the family sew- 
 ing, would appear with comb, brush, and a large 
 round curling-stick in hand at the instant Kate sat 
 down in a low chair. Conning her lesson while the 
 maid toiled for half an hour or more over the long, 
 bright chestnut tresses, rolling each curl around the 
 stick, she sat studying, until at the completion of the 
 task a mass of burnished curls fell from the crown of 
 her head below her shoulders in rich clusters, held 
 back from the broad, fair brow by a round comb. 
 Kate was not without her girlish pleasure in the con- 
 sciousness of being an attractive figure. She had an 
 innate belief always in her own right of way; but 
 could the ideal atmosphere of wise and tender love 
 that enfolded her then have but continued longer, 
 Kate Field would have had a different and a far hap- 
 pier life. She was then rather the queen rose of the 
 rosebud garden of girls; and when this exquisite 
 dawning of her girl-life ended, as it did with the en- 
 suing year, there was left behind something that never 
 could come again. " The flowing conditions of life," 
 — how true is this expression of Emerson's. Never a 
 year, never a day, repeats itself Circumstances are 
 fluid in their character, and now, just before the 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 39 
 
 young girl, a new set of circumstances were already 
 forming ; already Destiny stood near to lead the ten- 
 derly beloved daughter into ways of sorrow and stern 
 discipline, unrevealed to the sapphire blue eyes that 
 looked out on life so eagerly, yet with a certain wist- 
 ful appeal, too, as if the spirit had some subtle 
 prophecy of all that waited in the unrevealed future 
 of the eventful years. 
 
 The spring of 1856 found Mr. and Mrs. Field play- 
 ers in Mobile, and her father thus writes : — 
 
 Mobile, March 14, 1854. 
 My dear, dear Daughter, — Your mother is very busy 
 with study, and must omit, this time, one of her most de- 
 lightful employments, and that is to write her affections to 
 you. I am just as busy in my turn, but can scribble faster 
 than " mother." Your last composition did honor to your 
 head and heart, my dear child. Such and kindred senti- 
 ments are among the results of a fond mother's anxious 
 care and training. God bless you, and long guard within 
 your heart your present feelings of love and simplicity. 
 
 Another letter from her father playfully addresses 
 her as " My Dear Miss Long Clothes," and sends her 
 a check for fifty dollars, trusting her " to use it 
 wisely." And the tender mother, writing from Mo- 
 bile, says that she has three new r61es to acquire 
 and so has little time to write, and adds : " May God 
 bless you, my own dear child, and keep you in health, 
 goodness, and happiness." 
 
 In the autumn of 1854 Kate's wish to visit her 
 Aunt Corda (Mrs. Milton T. Sanford) in Boston, was 
 fulfilled, and in November her father and mother left 
 St. Louis for Mobile to enter on their season there. 
 Misfortune had come upon Mr. Field in the burning 
 
40 Kate Field 
 
 of his theatre, the Vari6t6s, but his cheerful forti- 
 tude is shown in the following letter to his young 
 daughter : — 
 
 My dear, dear Katy, — I have just succeeded in 
 making a new arrangement with our association by which 
 I receive myself ^2000 present debt, and put myself on a 
 much better footing with them for the future, without com- 
 promising, for a moment, my position with the public or 
 the profession. I need not say that a weight of care has 
 been removed from my mind, and the iirst use I make of 
 it is to drop a few Hnes to my dear, dear child, whom I 
 may apparently seem to have neglected for some weeks 
 back. God bless you, Katy. If fortune should prove 
 herself capable of taking a clairvoyant peep through her 
 bandage this winter, as far as my humble prospects are 
 concerned, I shall be comparatively free in the spring. 
 Make yourself a teacher, by all means, — that is, store your 
 mind and heart, my child, with the ability to become such, 
 — but your temperament will never permit you to undertake 
 the requisite duties of the position, I fear. Still your aim is 
 a noble one, — you will endeavor to be able to be inde- 
 pendent and useful. I shall send you money from Mobile 
 very soon. We start to-morrow. My best love to Uncle 
 Milton and Aunt Corda. Again, God bless you. 
 
 Your affectionate Father. 
 
 Mr. Field had, as this letter reveals, an unerring 
 insight into his daughter's peculiar trend of tem- 
 perament. Her imperious will was something very 
 unlike either of her parents. She was an exotic ; and 
 those skilled in the mysteries of heredity might go 
 back to some far-away ancestor and find the clue to 
 the unique quality of Kate's nature. She was self- 
 willed almost to waywardness, and still her entire 
 character was of the utmost elevation and nobleness 
 
Childhood and Circumstance 41 
 
 of quality. Mistakes, errors, she could always make, 
 but anything ignoble was utterly foreign to her; — so 
 foreign, indeed, that she was intolerant toward it, 
 and if she were misjudged and misunderstood she 
 would never condescend to explain, when at times 
 a more lenient attitude might have been better as 
 well as wiser. Her nature was as true as steel, as 
 open as the sunlight, as lofty in purpose and aim 
 as an ideal could be; but so mercurial, so impres- 
 sionable, so sensitive, that a word, a look, would de- 
 flect her mood and cause her to seem capricious 
 because the subtle cause of the change eluded ob- 
 servation. All her life she suffered intensely from 
 this invisible friction of average life on a highly 
 wrought and too self-conscious nature. The wise, 
 sweet influence of her parents is shown in two follow- 
 ing letters written to her from Mobile, — that of her 
 mother dated Christmas, 1854, and her father's on 
 New Year's Day, 1855. Mrs. Field writes: — 
 
 Mobile, Dec. 25, 1854. 
 My dear Darling, — This is Christmas day. 'Tis too 
 late to wish you and those I love with you in Boston a 
 Merry Christmas, but not too late to tell you how much I 
 love you, how constantly I am thinking and wishing to be 
 with you all, and how fervently I pray that the opening year 
 and all that are to come may be years of blessedness and 
 peace ; and that my own darling child may grow wiser, 
 better, more useful and unselfish, every day she lives ; that 
 she may not love this world so well as to forget that there 
 is a higher motive for exertion than the approbation of manj 
 that the farther she advances in goodness and in knowledge 
 in this world, the sooner she will arrive at perfect bliss in 
 the world everlasting. Holidays are always sad days to 
 me when I am away from those I love. 
 
42 Kate Field 
 
 Mr. Field's letter runs thus : — 
 
 New Year, 1855. 
 
 My dear, dear Daughter, — God bless you on this 
 happy day, which here is a bright one indeed, as far as 
 sunshine goes. This day week I sent you a ^10 gold 
 piece to buy a present for Uncle Milton, as your mother 
 instructed you. I hope it may have reached you in time. 
 We are well in health and business improving. In a 
 week I expect to remit you more money. 
 
 God bless you, my dear Katy, and grant you many, many 
 happy, peaceful returns of this day. You must arrange 
 with Aunt Corda about school. Love to your Uncle and 
 Aunt. 
 
 Your affectionate Father. 
 
 Little dreamed the young girl that this was the 
 last Newf Year's greeting she was to have from the 
 father she idolized. So it was written, and she stood 
 on the threshold of changes which were to entirely 
 transform the apparent course of her life. Events 
 dissolve to give new material for the structure. 
 
 " Ever the Rock of Ages melts 
 Into the mineral air 
 To be the quarry whence to build 
 Thought, and its mansions fair." 
 
 The first chapter of the story of her sojourn in this 
 part of life was rapidly ending. The atmosphere of 
 idolizing tenderness with the wise and thoughtful love 
 that had encompassed her was to give place to those 
 sterner experiences of life which are as truly the 
 culture of the spirit and are a part of the needed 
 forces for development. 
 
EARLY YOUTH 
 
 " In those young eyes so keenly, bravely bent 
 To search the mysteries of the future hour, 
 There shines the will to conquer, and the power. 
 
 The radiance of the Beautiful was blent 
 
 E'en with thine earliest dreams." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 But heard are the Voices, 
 Heard are the Sages, 
 The Worlds and the Ages. 
 
 " Choose well : your choice is 
 
 Brief, and yet endless." 
 
 Goethe. 
 
 " Sculptors of life are we as we stand 
 
 With our souls uncarved before us, 
 Waiting the hour when, at God's command, 
 
 Our life-dream passes o'er us. 
 If we carve it then on that yielding stone 
 
 With many a sharp incision, 
 The angel dream shall become our own 
 
 Our lives shall reflect the vision I " 
 
 Early Youth. Aspirations and Studies. Interest in Art 
 AND Literature. Ardent Devotion to Music. 
 
 IN the winter of 1855 Kate entered Lasell Sem- 
 inary in Auburndale, near Boston. The change 
 from the ideal atmosphere of the home in which she 
 had been reared to that of a boarding-school, how- 
 ever well conducted, was naturally hard to bear. Yet 
 the sweet influences had wrought their impress in 
 her, and she endeavored to adapt herself to the 
 changed circumstances. " I should much prefer 
 rooming alone," she writes to her mother, " as you 
 know I have a passion for having no other com- 
 panions than my own thoughts and books when I am 
 studying, but I cannot, so I must be satisfied." She 
 writes to her mother of the annoyances of inter- 
 
46 Kate Field 
 
 ruption in her study, and this sweet counsel comes in 
 reply : — 
 
 " I know, my dear child, it is not always pleasant when 
 our minds are engaged with study, or our own thoughts, to 
 answer questions, but nevertheless good breeding and con- 
 sideration for others often compel us to do what is not 
 always agreeable to our feelings." 
 
 There began to come now into Kate's life an influ- 
 ence that had the potency of destiny. Her mother's 
 youngest sister, Cordelia Riddle, one of the most 
 beautiful, gifted, and charming of women, had be- 
 come the wife of Milton T. Sanford, a man of wealth 
 and influence. Mrs. Sanford (born in 1824) was only 
 fourteen years the senior of her niece, and her youth 
 and the harmony of taste between them in the pas- 
 sionate love of music, drew the aunt and niece to- 
 gether in an absorbing affection which had in it the 
 elements of tragedy. This expression regarding a 
 family relation seems to savor of exaggeration ; but 
 however inexplicable the cause, it is still true that 
 between Kate and her Aunt Corda there was a feeling 
 akin to that of a romantic love. The young aunt 
 satisfied the more impassioned side of the girl's 
 nature. Mrs. Sanford was a born artist. She had 
 great beauty and distinction of presence, an exquisite 
 voice, a passionate love of art. She was a very keen 
 and not too charitable critic of life and people. She 
 had the family uprightness and honor, but she lacked 
 the great love, the infinite patience, sweetness, and 
 philosophic tolerance that so characterized Mrs. 
 Field. Of the two sisters, Mrs. Field would win 
 where Mrs. Sanford would dazzle. She had a bewil- 
 dering fascination about her, and with her youth. 
 
Kate Field. 
 From the Portrait painted by Simpson, 1852. 
 
Early Youth 47 
 
 beauty, wealth, artistic gifts, and just sufficient sen- 
 iority to charm the fancy of a young girl, she became 
 the most potent influence in Kate's life. A girl of 
 sixteen has no fixed character. She is one thing or 
 another in her plastic youth according to circum- 
 stances and influences. Mrs. Sanford had no chil- 
 dren, and this clever, unique niece became her idol 
 and delight. Brilliant, responsive, sympathetic, an 
 artist and the friend of artists, a persona grata in an 
 enchanting world which this young girl had dreamed 
 of but not seen, Mrs. Sanford's vivid personality was 
 ineffaceably stamped upon the mind and heart of her 
 niece. Mrs. Sanford had the dramatic temperament, 
 and had it not been for her early marriage she would 
 undoubtedly have made a name on the lyric stage. 
 When a girl of seventeen Mrs. Sanford discovered 
 the rare musical genius of Adelaide Phillipps, then a 
 little child playing juvenile parts on the stage of the 
 Boston Museum. Corda Riddle gave Adelaide Phil- 
 lipps her first music lesson, and was from that time her 
 life-long friend. After Miss Riddle's marriage to 
 Mr. Sanford, her husband's wealth enabled her to 
 become a generous patron of art; and in her beau- 
 tiful villa in Newport, she drew around her a choice 
 and distinguished circle of friends, among whom 
 were Charlotte Cushman, Edwin Booth, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Edwin P. Whipple, Thomas Ball, the sculptor, Charles 
 Caryll Coleman, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Adelaide 
 Phillipps, and other persons whose names have flown 
 to world-wide fame. Into this stimulating atmos- 
 phere came Kate Field. Auburndale is almost a 
 Boston suburb, and her aunt was in almost daily com- 
 munication with her by visit or letter. The artistic 
 side of her nature responded to all this brilliant art 
 
48 Kate Field 
 
 life: with this she had, as we have seen, a vein of 
 mysticism and fervent, though undefined rehgious 
 longing which her Aunt Corda could not wholly com- 
 prehend, although in the later life of Mrs. Sanford 
 this element in her character revealed itself. But the 
 girl who had copied sermons, at thirteen, into her 
 diary, found irksome the ceremonial religious obser- 
 vances of the school, for she had no sympathy 
 with formal piety. And to her mother she wrote, 
 expressing something of this feeling, to which Mrs. 
 Field replied : — 
 
 " It makes me happy to know you are in good spirits, 
 my darling child. You have much to be grateful for, and I 
 trust your education will enlarge your ideas without engen- 
 dering pride (that sin of the shallow-minded). I could 
 wish to see you free from all prejudice or suspicion, kind 
 and considerate of the feelings of others. When you see 
 faults in those around you, remember how many good qual- 
 ities they have, and judge charitably. Make it a habit be- 
 fore going to sleep, my darling daughter, to think over your 
 own conduct, — all you have done and thought (for thoughts 
 should be pure as well as actions), and this practice will 
 help you, and lead to happiness not only in this world, but 
 what is far better, prepare you for the world that is to come. 
 You say in your letter, my dear child, ' that you think you 
 will never succeed in becoming unselfish, selfishness has ht- 
 come so firmfy sealed ■within you.' If you really and truth- 
 fully think this, set about the case, do not rest until you have 
 eradicated it from your heart. You can never be happy 
 yourself or make those about you so with such feelings in your 
 bosom. I would be wretched, my own darling child, if I 
 thought you would grow up a selfish woman. I know that 
 it is one of the strongest feelings of our nature, and one that 
 requires the greatest struggle on our part to overcome ; but 
 
Early Youth 49 
 
 we can, with God's help, overcome that, as many other sins. 
 You would be shocked to be called a thief or a liar, and 
 yet in the eye of God, selfishness is a great sin. Think 
 that the pure spirit of your little darling brother is always 
 hovering about you, sorrowing when you do wrong, rejoic- 
 ing when you are good. With this thought constantly in 
 your mind, it will purify your heart, you cannot be selfish, 
 it will teach you to do to others as you would wish others 
 to do unto you ; to be good from principle. We cannot 
 depend upon our impulses; they as often lead us to do 
 wrong as right. I know, my dear child, I do not practise 
 these teachings, but I will struggle and endeavor to do so ; 
 and if my life is spared I hope I shall be a better woman, 
 and if I am better I shall be happier. Never say again, my 
 own dear child, if you love your mother and wish to make 
 her happy, ' that you will never succeed in becoming un- 
 selfish: " 
 
 Mrs. Sanford takes her niece to the theatre during, 
 this winter, and Kate writes to her father that she 
 thinks Forrest very successful in his characters ; and 
 that Adelaide Phillipps has just opened an operatic 
 engagement, adding that it is very sad that the 
 strength of Miss Phillipps is unequal to the tax of her 
 great mind, and " if this be true, a genius will be lost 
 to the world, such an one as we cannot hope to see 
 again." Even then, as a school-girl, Kate discerned 
 truly the noble genius and wonderful power of Ade- 
 laide Phillipps whom, as artist and woman, America 
 now holds in reverence as an embodied ideal of lofty 
 character. 
 
 Again Kate writes : — 
 
 " Have you or has father read ' Hiawatha/ Longfellow's 
 new poem? If you have not, do so and give me your 
 opinion. I have just commenced it. They accuse him of 
 
 4 
 
50 Kate Field 
 
 plagiarism from the German, then again others say it is not 
 worth the precious time devoted to the perusal. For my- 
 self the singular metre has a peculiar charm, and there 
 seems to be an undercurrent of harmony breathing through- 
 out it. I have read but a few pages, however." 
 
 Kate gave herself to musical study with all the 
 ardor of her nature, and in a letter to her mother she 
 says : — 
 
 " I am to sing in two more choruses, one from 
 ' Macbeth' and the other from Rossini. I am very well, 
 and have finished the ' Corsican Brothers ' with the 
 exception of two pages." 
 
 Italian, too, is now added to her studies, and the 
 girl records : " I am quite bewildered with the lan- 
 guage, and I shall make rapid progress with it." 
 Writing to her mother in the December of that year, 
 Kate says : — 
 
 " Sixteenth of December. This year will have soon 
 passed away, and we shall have entered upon '56. How 
 short is life in this world ! How short in comparison 
 with eternity, and yet it seems to me as though all our 
 labor, all our strivings, were for earthly objects, as fleeting 
 and uncertain as our own mortality. Whenever I think on 
 this, I resolve to try to be a Christian, but my resolutions 
 seem to fail, and I am the same uncharitable, restless 
 spirit. There is always such a tumult going on in my brain 
 that I never can decide what I am, what I will be, what I 
 was created for, or what it is my ambition to be. I suppose 
 I am what is designated as ' rather queer.' " 
 
 In this girl only just past her seventeenth birthday 
 there was striving the same feeling that William 
 Watson voiced in his " World-Strangeness." 
 
Early Youth 51 
 
 " Strange the world about me lies, 
 Never yet familiar grown, — 
 Still disturbs me with surprise, 
 Haunts me like a face half known. 
 
 " On from room to roolh I stray 
 Yet my Host can ne'er espy. 
 And I know not to this day 
 Whether guest or captive I. 
 
 " So, between the starry dome 
 
 And the flow of plains and seas, 
 I have never felt at home, 
 Never wholly been at ease." 
 
 Toward the end of that December it would almost 
 seem as if a premonition of the sorrow that was so 
 near came upon her, and she writes : — 
 
 My own dear, darling Mother, — I am homesick, 
 very homesick, and how I long to see you and father ! It 
 seems to me as though the time would never come when I 
 shall be with you once more. 1 can only reconcile by 
 anticipating the pleasure which is in store for me, Provi- 
 dence permitting. I think there is something inspiring in 
 looking forward to what will be. It urges me to renewed 
 exertion in whatever I am engaged upon. My poor father, 
 how often I think of him, confined to his room and suffering ! 
 May his health be speedily restored ! " 
 
 Serious thoughts of the future begin to stir in her 
 mind, and in a letter to her mother she says : — 
 
 Yesterday Aunt Corda made me an offer as generous as 
 it was surprising, yet one which I dread to accept and 
 would not if I did not know the displeasure my refusal 
 would cause Uncle Milton. It is to finish this year at 
 Lasell, and to study music at their expense. Aunt Corda 
 
52 Kate Field 
 
 urged it so earnestly, and I remembered how last summer 
 when at the St. Nicholas I refused to take some bank bills 
 that Uncle Milton threw into my lap, I hurt his feelings so 
 that I dare not refuse again. And yet, dear mother, it 
 gives me great pain to place myself under such great obli- 
 gation to my aunt and uncle, and I shall not rest till I can 
 repay them. I shall devote all my energies to singing with 
 a view to making it a means of support. My French I 
 could turn to account and might teach beginners, the same 
 with my English. But I prefer the singing if I can make 
 myself capable. I have often thought I would like to 
 practise writing sketches with father, if he would criticise 
 them and tell me if they were in the least meritorious. But 
 I have been away from him so much, and when he was last 
 here he was so ill and so full of cares, that I did not dare 
 to mention such a foolish and trifling occupation. Has he 
 ever told you what he thought of my capacities, — where he 
 thought my little talent lay ? I have none, I can excel in 
 nothing, I am good for nothing. Write me very often, dear 
 mother, take good care of your health, and remember that 
 you have a 
 
 devoted daughter, Katey. 
 
 Again under date of Jan. 20, 1856, Kate writes to 
 her mother: — 
 
 " The opening opera to-morrow night is ' II Trovatore.' 
 Ah, woe, ah, woe is me ! I shall be a model for despair if I 
 do not hear ' Linda de Chamounix ' Friday night. Do you 
 remember the two gold dollars that father gave me to see 
 Rachel in Adrienne ? I did not need the money then, and 
 I have treasured them ever since, waiting for something to 
 'turn up.' I think that if I spend ^1.50 upon the opera 
 of ' Linda,' it will be a profitable investment. What is your 
 opinion of the matter? . . . Present my remembrances to 
 Mr. and Mrs. Barney Williams. Is it true that they intend 
 
Early Youth 53 
 
 visiting Europe? Ask them to remember me if they have 
 an opportunity of collecting autographs or curiosities of any 
 description. I wonder if it will ever be our destiny to jour- 
 ney over the old world. If wishing would accomplish it, 
 such a consummation would soon come to pass." 
 
 Already Destiny was on its way, in the guise of a 
 sorrow of which the young girl little dreamed. She 
 attends Thackeray's first lectures in Boston, and then 
 writes : — 
 
 " As I expected, I attended Thackeray's lecture Friday 
 night. I shall not yet pass my judgment, as we had a 
 seat near the entrance, and I only heard about half 
 he said. The lecture was by no means an extraordinary 
 composition, simply pleasing, chatty, and conversational. 
 Not at all historic, but this latter he acknowledged he 
 avoided, from the fact that he did not aspire to the position 
 of an historian, but a recorder of the manners and times 
 of the age of the Georges. I thought his lecture a com- 
 plete satire, and certainly I could not help feeling that he 
 arrived at the most unamiable and uncharitable conclusions 
 concerning the individuals upon whom he dilated, as were 
 possible to any human being. They say the opening one 
 is the most inferior ; hereafter I shall hear what I shall hear, 
 and shall then give my impressions. Thackeray was con- 
 ducted to the hall (which was crowded with the ^lite and 
 literati of Boston) by James T. Fields. Mr. Thackeray is 
 no orator, merely a pleasant speaker, very easy in his man- 
 ner. His voice is quite monotonous, though at the same 
 time it does not weary you. It must arise from his being 
 so perfectly natural." 
 
 On Jan. 23, 1856, Kate wrote the last letter she 
 was ever to write to her beloved father, — a letter that 
 tells its own story of the eager young life : — 
 
54 Kate Field 
 
 " Something has turned up in reality. Let me tell you 
 the news. Aunt Corda and Uncle Milton are to visit Aunt 
 Charlotte as long as the opera remains in Boston ; further- 
 more, we are all going next Friday night to hear Linda, 
 which character La Heusler is to sustain. The greatest 
 curiosity is of course manifested to see her, the American 
 Prima Donna. Tableaux are progressing. I am becoming 
 exceedingly nervous about my part in the performance. It 
 will be hard for me to commit ' Come e bello ' to memory, 
 as I have not yet learned a note of it. Oh, dear me ! what 
 will become of me ? We have seen the proof sheet of pro- 
 grammes, which has quite a nice appearance. My name 
 looks quite imposing in print. I think, talk, and dream 
 nothing but tableaux, and this is the case with my three 
 co-laborers.'' 
 
 It w^as one of these strange sequences recurring in 
 Kate Field's life that on the very night of the amateur 
 tableaux the telegram should come to her bearing the 
 news of the death of her idolized father. 
 
 The New Year of 1856 dawned, and several of the 
 pupils of Lasell gave this musical soiree with tab- 
 leaux. A local paper describing the entertainment 
 says : — 
 
 " But there was a touching episode connected with the 
 entertainment which was the cause of sudden gloom to one 
 young lady, who had been ' the observed of all observers ' 
 during the evening, and whose charming accomplishments 
 had elicited the admiration of the company there gathered. 
 Miss Kate Field, to whom we allude, had borne the most 
 prominent part in the tableaux, and was the only girl who 
 had favored the company with vocal music, she having sung 
 ' Casta Diva ' and ' She wore a Wreath of Roses,' in a 
 manner which her sweet and vibrant though not powerful 
 voice made irresistibly pleasing. A dispatch was received 
 
Early Youth 55 
 
 in Boston that evening stating that her father, Mr. Joseph 
 M. Field, the well-known actor, had died during the morn- 
 ing at Mobile. It was deemed prudent not to make the 
 announcement to the young lady until late in the evening, 
 but what must have been the private grief that overwhelmed 
 her joyous spirits on the reception of such news at such a 
 time, it is easy to imagine. As the sad tidings were whis- 
 pered about after the close of the entertainment, each heart 
 seemed touched with melting sympathy for the unfortunate 
 young lady whose evening's transition from delight to sad- 
 ness was so sudden." 
 
 In Mobile, where Mr. and Mrs. Field had played 
 for so many seasons, came his sudden death on the 
 morning of Jan. 28, 1856. The previous day (Sun- 
 day) he had driven out with his wife, and although he 
 was ill, no one dreamed of immediate danger. The 
 journals of the day were full of tribute to him as a 
 dramatic artist of rare power, a man of brilliant intel- 
 lect and noble life, — a high-minded gentleman. The 
 funeral services were held in the Episcopal church on 
 St. Emanuel Street in Mobile, and his body was 
 brought to Boston and buried in the family lot in 
 Mount Auburn. A leading writer of the day said of 
 Mr. Field: — 
 
 " He was affectionate and faithful in all his family rela- 
 tions, true to all his friendships, and honorable in the dis- 
 charge of all the duties of life. His pilgrimage has been a 
 diversified and toilsome one ; yet he bore its burdens cheer- 
 fully, and has gone to his final rest with a consciousness of 
 having acted well his part on earth. No one could know 
 Mr. Field without being drawn toward him by his genial 
 nature, and that accomplishment and vivacity of mind which 
 rendered his society always instructive and agreeable. As 
 
56 Kate Field 
 
 a writer he was distinguished for refinement and wit, and as 
 an actor for that nice conception and correct delineation 
 which rendered his impersonations models in the histrionic 
 profession." 
 
 To the loving wife, the devoted daughter, the loss 
 was one whose sadness lay too deep for tears, but 
 there was a spirituality in the nature of both that led 
 them instinctively to lay hold of the realities of the 
 life after death and of the intimate way in which 
 all life in the Seen and the Unseen is related. The 
 generous kindness of heart that so signally character- 
 ized Mrs. Field's brother-in-law, Mr. Sanford, is shown 
 in a note dated Jan. 31, 1856, which he wrote to her, 
 saying : — 
 
 " Come home to us as soon as may be. You will draw 
 on me for any funds that you require. Kate will soon 
 resume her lessons.'' 
 
 Mrs. Field was not the type of woman, however, 
 to retire before misfortunes into helpless inactivity. 
 Indeed, the very desolation of her grief spurred her 
 on to renewed efforts for the future. She was left 
 with a theatre company on her hands, with debts 
 caused by Mr. Field's loss in the burning of his the- 
 atre in St. Louis, and other misfortunes that had in- 
 volved him in obligations which he was expecting to 
 clear off by the season's work. The only property 
 was a life insurance for ;^3,ooo, and this Mrs. Field 
 felt must be held intact for their daughter's educa- 
 tion. She turned immediately to her work on the 
 stage, keeping the company together and facing the 
 public each night with smiles and radiance, however 
 heart-breaking were the lonely hours when she re- 
 
Early Youth 57 
 
 turned from the evening's performances. To a friend 
 who wrote suggesting a benefit night for her in St. 
 Louis, she replied : — 
 
 " My husband was very sensitive, but never shrank from 
 what he conceived to be his duty. I will endeavor to imi- 
 tate his example, as far as light is given me. I owe already 
 so many obligations to my friends that they almost over- 
 power me. If my dear husband's name was free from debt, 
 I would decline your kind offers ; but as I am situated, I do 
 not think it would be right or just to others in doing so." 
 
 To her sister, Mrs. Sanford, Mrs. Field wrote : — 
 
 " I would not have my dear, dear husband back if his 
 suffering were to continue, as the doctor said. I could not 
 be so selfish. It is a great consolation to me that my own 
 darling child is with you, and you will do all in your power 
 to comfort her, to console her." 
 
 To her daughter, Mrs. Field writes, saying : — 
 
 My Own Darling, — My sweet comforter, I feel your 
 sympathy, and now we will both endeavor to be less selfish 
 than we have ever been before, and if ever we have any 
 unkind or uncharitable feelings rise in our hearts towards 
 those we mingle with, we will watch ourselves closely, and 
 believe that the loving spirit of your dear Father is ever 
 with us, loving us so dearly, so happy if we are purely 
 so. Let us, then, pray, my dariing, that time may never 
 wean us, but keep ever fresh in our hearts the sad but sweet 
 memory of your beloved father. And I pray to our Heav- 
 enly Father that we may find ease of heart and cheerful- 
 ness in the thought of usefulness to others. We will even 
 try to be happier, my precious daughter. This I will try 
 to do ; this I would hke my darling to practise. How far 
 our weak endeavors will succeed, time must show. 'T is 
 
58 Kate Field 
 
 hard to give up those we love so dearly. I thought so when 
 I lost your darling brother. I do not wish him back now. 
 He would have been left so young without a father's care 
 that I now feel that it was for the best. He was a boy ; 
 I could not have had him always with me as I could a 
 daughter. How much greater (as far as I can understand) 
 would have been my responsibility ! Our loved ones are 
 together, — perhaps with us often, — loving us more dearly 
 than ever. The time will come, if we are good, that we 
 shall be with them, — never, never again to part. My own 
 darling, you are young, and if you are spared, the world is 
 before you, — I hope a bright and happy future, — one of 
 usefulness, of love and charity. ... As you say, my pet, 
 'there is nothing so easy as to advise others.' Do not 
 think, my child, because I can give good advice that I am 
 good myself. No ; far, far from it. I wish I were. I can 
 only say that I will endeavor. 
 
 Such angelic words have their universal message, 
 and are too vital to be consigned to oblivion. Writ- 
 ten only for the eye of her daughter, they are nowf, 
 after a lapse of nearly half a century, full of counsel 
 and help for the life of to-day. 
 
 Again Mrs. Field writes, two weeks after her hus- 
 band's death : — 
 
 " We do not know what we are able to endure until we 
 are tried. I have been sorely tried in the loss of my best 
 friend, — so truthful, so unselfish, so high-minded in all his 
 actions. My beloved husband possessed my entire esteem 
 as well as my love. He has gone to a happier world, free 
 from toil and suffering. Do not think that I have no 
 strength, no belief, in the promise of our Heavenly Father. 
 I feel that He alone can help me in this saddest hour of my 
 life, that He alone can give me consolation. Although my 
 heart is sore and I am very lonely, I do not despair. Life 
 
Early Youth 59 
 
 is not a blank to me, even in this the first hours of my be- 
 reavement. I feel that I have much to live for ; that I am 
 blessed with a dear, good child, — one who has always been 
 a comfort to her parents, and who has never caused us an 
 anxious thought. I was asked after my husband's death as 
 to whether my wishes were to go home or to go on with 
 the theatre as usual. My reply was that I wished, as far as 
 I am able, to carry out the engagements made by my hus- 
 band ; that this was my most earnest desire ; for I did not 
 wish any one to suffer so far as I was able to prevent it." 
 
 About this time Kate writes to her mother : — 
 
 " Yesterday I took my first singing lesson. Signor Ben- 
 delari was very kind, and seemed very sorry for me. 
 Darling mother, I pray that we may never be obliged to be 
 parted hereafter. Signor Bendelari spoke encouragingly of 
 my voice." 
 
 Again Kate writes : — 
 
 AuBURNDALE, Feb. 26, 1856. 
 My precious Mother, — Once more at school. Oh, 
 how strange everything appeared here ! Each object wears 
 a different aspect. So sad, so desolate, how different it 
 was when I left it ! Well, well, it must be so. It was hard 
 for me to return, but you desired it, Aunt Corda and Uncle 
 Milton urged it very much, and I have come. I cannot as 
 yet fix my mind on my books, but I will try to overcome 
 my feelings and thoughts and fix my attention upon my 
 studies. I do not think I have yet told you of my lessons. 
 They are Geometry, Rhetoric, Kames' Elements of Criti- 
 cism, and (perhaps) Geography of the Heavens. I have 
 no French or Italian now, so I can take more English 
 studies. I have concluded not to continue Algebra, from 
 the fact that I dislike it to such a degree that it positively 
 makes me sick to open the book. It is of no use unless 
 
6o Kate Field 
 
 you intend to be a teacher, and if I am to be one, I can 
 never attempt to teach mathematics. I have a natural dis- 
 taste for all excepting Geometry. You know my propen- 
 sity to scribble and read. I delight in studies of a literary 
 nature. Father wished me to study astronomy, and so I 
 wish to take up the Geography of the Heavens. Father's 
 picture is hanging up before my writing desk, so that I am 
 gazing upon his beloved face all the time. Oh, mother 
 dear, I know that I am very ungrateful to complain. You, 
 who have so much more cause, are making all efforts to 
 gain the mastery over your feelings. I think I have done 
 so too, but in writing to you I forget myself. Forgive me, 
 and do not be anxious about me. 
 
 Like all persons of strong imagination, Kate had 
 great practical power, and of their affairs she said to 
 her mother: — 
 
 " With regard to father's debts, if it is a possible thing 
 let them all be paid. Will not something be realized from 
 the properties of the theatre and the disposal of the lease ? 
 You remember that father owns the Reveille building on 
 Olive Street in St. Louis. If the debts cannot all be paid 
 now, collect them if the parties are willing, and let us see 
 what can be done in the future, if we live." 
 
 The speculative discussion of the day in regard to 
 spiritualism appealed to Kate, and she wrote to her 
 mother : — 
 
 " If spiritual manifestations are true, what a source of 
 comfort they will be to us ! We shall hear from father from 
 the Spirit world, but we must not give our confidence too 
 readily, but receive all such communications with great 
 caution. Were I in New York, I should seek the Misses 
 Fox. I know them to be honest and truthful in them- 
 
Early Youth 6i 
 
 selves. I do not speak on this latter subject to Aunt 
 Corda or Uncle Milton, for they are averse to it and con- 
 sider such belief as fanaticism. Nevertheless I am one to 
 enquire and to believe that which my reason allows, — to 
 believe facts. My father's mind was too strong to be led 
 away by impositions or idle fancies and supposition. He 
 sought eagerly for Spiritual Truth, he studied earnestly, 
 he found that which he sought, in Swedenborg. I have 
 read but little of Swedenborg, but that little has satisfied 
 me. What noble lessons of humanity does he teach ! 
 Charity and love are his passports to Heaven. But to be 
 liberal one should study the teachings of others, of the 
 established doctrines. One thing it seems to me I must 
 believe, — in the Trinity. Do you accord with the Unitarian 
 belief? " 
 
 Kate's self-analysis is almost startlingly frank at 
 times. As this : — 
 
 "What I attempt is well done, and it is by no means 
 easy music that I sing, but I have not a powerful voice, no 
 dramatic fervor, little expression, nor is my voice the most 
 flexible known to the world. It is medium, neither one 
 thing nor the other ; in consequence, I am not satisfied. I 
 would sing like Jenny Lind, like Albani, like Grisi; all 
 these different styles I would have combined in one. As 
 I am incapacitated by nature for anything of the kind, I 
 am unhappy, for music is my passion, my love. I would be 
 wedded to it were I a worthy bride. How glorious to 
 interpret the inspired notes of Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, 
 Donizetti, and even the thundering Verdi ! Oh, how I long 
 to be a follower of this divine art, the art of Arts ; but no 
 humble servant would I be. Could I not stand beside 
 Grisi, I would not tread their path. 'T is impossible, even , 
 ridiculous to think this, so my favorite desire must be re- 
 linquished. Have I another? Yes, to be a fine writer. 
 
62 Kate Field 
 
 Could I be? No. Why not? Nature has not thus en- 
 dowed me. Does not success in an undertaking need 
 hard study, work? Yes. Do I seek to gain this desire? 
 No. These are my two great desires, I have always 
 cherished more or less. . . . 
 
 " I awoke at 5 finding the storm continuing unabated, 
 much to my discomfort. Did not rise till (i\, lying until 
 that time in bed wondering what the future might bring 
 forth. It is foolish to indulge in reveries I know full well, 
 but since my return to school I find myself dreaming very 
 nearly half the day. My thoughts are anywhere but on my 
 studies. I find myself planning for the future, thinking of 
 my dear mother, and then the truth will flash across my 
 brain that I have no longer a father, that I am fatherless. 
 Oh, it is terrible. I cannot realize it. My own darling 
 father that I loved more than any daughter can love a 
 father, whom I studied for and depended upon, whose 
 talents, and whose sensitive, noble nature I so well under- 
 stood and appreciated, is gone to his Eternal home. I 
 must not despair, it is wrong; the thought of the long, 
 lonely separation of father and daughter is so sad, so very 
 sad. But ought I to say long ? for might I not be taken 
 away at any moment? Am I prepared for death? Ah, 
 no, and this is what makes me feel how awful that hour 
 would be. Such were my reveries, and very dispiriting 
 they were. . . . People may think I have little feeling. 
 They little know my nature." 
 
 And again : — 
 
 " I have always felt that I was different from the other 
 girls with whom I have associated ; that I had a mission of 
 some kind on this globe. ... I am passionately fond of 
 reading, not trash, but literature of a high order. This 
 is one thing in my favor, and I think that literature is my 
 forte. 
 
Early Youth 63 
 
 "... After dinner commenced the ' Spectator.' I ex- 
 pect a ' feast of reason and a flow of soul ' from Joseph 
 Addison, in which I pray not to be disappointed. Wrote 
 journal and read until bedtime." 
 
 She hears Mozart, and writes : — 
 
 " Mozart's 7th Symphony was played quite well. What 
 a glorious composition, — so purifying in its influence ! 
 The andante from Beethoven's 7th Symphony was con- 
 ceived quite well by the performer, — perhaps it was exe- 
 cuted too slowly. There is too great a predominance of 
 light music at these concerts to satisfy me. Waltzes rule 
 the day, to the evident satisfaction of the majority. ... It is 
 so very galling to see aimless, stupid, brainless school girls get 
 up and sing in a manner so far superior to my own. Music 
 requires soul, — have I none ? I am a devoted lover of 
 music ; I have the most exalted worship for the art, and still 
 I am only what I am. Voice. The voice is indispensable in 
 vocal music. The want of this is my misfortune, not my fault. 
 . . . Arrived at the Seminary and studied my astronomy lesson, 
 wrote in journal, zxA thought, — went to bed, fell asleep. . . . 
 
 " Practised the Opus Second. It is a noble composition, 
 and one which I delight to sing, — it is so grand, so reli- 
 gious in its sentiment." 
 
 Music was the absorbing passion of Kate's life. In 
 her dying hours, in Hawaii, she was asked if the sing- 
 ing of some of the natives under her window disturbed 
 her, and she replied, " Oh, no, music is heaven to 
 me ! " — an expression that sustained to the last her 
 most intense devotion. When taking her lesson one 
 morning from Signor Bendelari, the famous Boston 
 teacher of that day, he told her that her high notes 
 were improving, and she records this in her journal 
 with her intention to take severe study, and adds: 
 
64 Kate Field 
 
 " Some people go through life as if it were a plaything. 
 I have very different ideas of God's creation." She 
 was born under a star that danced, and a lapse into 
 domestic industries fretted her. She confided to her 
 journal one day that " the entire family are sewing 
 themselves out of existence. I cannot afford a seam- 
 stress, and I ought to sew," she continues, " but it 
 seems to me such a waste of time, such a sacrifice of 
 life. What new idea has suggested itself during such 
 work?" Another day was more to the girl's taste, 
 and she records : — 
 
 " I have been reading Mrs. Browning's poems all the 
 afternoon. Read the ' Poet's Vow,' which pleased me for 
 its moral. I was agreeably disappointed in my rapid glance 
 of the lady's works. She is a remarkable woman, and the 
 only real poetess' of the age." 
 
 In the May of 1856 Kate first saw Washington 
 in a trip made vm New York and Baltimore, with 
 her indulgent uncle and aunt, the Sanfords. In a 
 picture gallery she saw a sketch of an old man's head 
 which she thought "showed the hand of a master; " 
 and she visited the Smithsonian Institute with eager 
 interest in the inventions displayed, and she writes in 
 her journal: "But the instruments for experiment- 
 ing, — how I feasted my eyes on mammoth lenses, 
 electrical machines, monstrous air-pumps, and horse- 
 shoe magnets." 
 
 This attraction to scientific achievements deepened 
 into one of her most marked characteristics, and at 
 the Chicago Exposition of 1893 her press description 
 and comment on the electrical achievements led all 
 the rest. This trip to the nation's capital was an- 
 other mile-mark in the girl's, life, and stimulated her 
 
Early Youth 65 
 
 innate longing for wider horizons. Thus uncon- 
 sciously does one come to an hour of destiny that 
 is retrospectively recognized as a point dividing the 
 past from the future. 
 
 " We cross an unseen line, 
 Andlo! another zone." 
 
 On the Sunday following her return she gave her- 
 self up to the newspaper reading, which was to be one 
 of the interests of all her after life, and in her journal 
 she alludes to newspapers as " friends of humanity." 
 She finds that a stranger has leased the Mobile the- 
 atre that her father had managed, and she writes : — 
 
 " Will they find him equal to my talented, brilliant, sensi- 
 tive, unappreciated father? The world in general scorns 
 actors. Be it so, which is most to be coveted, money or 
 genius? Death will separate men from the one. Genius 
 is eternal. Do I regret that my father was poor? No, 
 indeed ; I glory in his memory as he was. Honest, truthful, 
 sharing with others his gains, acting by others as he would 
 wish others to act by him, hopeful, never complaining of 
 reverses, but trusting in Providence, scorning a low action, 
 he was all to admire. Verily, he will meet his reward 
 above. Abbott Lawrence is spoken of as a pattern to 
 young men, a merchant prince ; follow his example. How 
 it makes my blood boil to have it said, as I know it is, 
 ' Poor Joe, he was a noble fellow, too generous to get 
 along in the world, always sharing his money with others, 
 had not much business tact, infatuated with all the isms of 
 the day.' Why? Because he was not a Yankee, did not 
 screw those he employed, and would not drive a hard bar- 
 gain. He was a Christian, and followed the teachings of 
 Christ. In business he was talented and always showed 
 it. In the progress of the day he was always interested ; 
 he always read what would uplift and advance him." 
 
 5 
 
66 Kate Field 
 
 That parting of the ways which youth must always 
 meet in some form opened now before Kate Field. 
 She had a capacity for exaltation of spirit that was 
 not understood, and she began to encounter that 
 spiritual tragedy which reveals itself when one who 
 longs to lead a higher life than the average fails in 
 the effort, and questions the reality of his own ideals. 
 
 The summer of 1857 was a period of mingled fer- 
 ment. In those days the outlook for women was 
 limited, and Kate's inborn independence was urging 
 her on to a life of her own, free from the sense of 
 obligation that often burdened her. Mrs. Sanford 
 was of a highly nervous and excitable disposition, 
 and her ill health resulted in a lack of mental balance 
 that made Kate's position in her aunt's home one 
 that at times tortured her sensitive nature. Under 
 the date of Aug. 24, 1857, the girl writes in her 
 journal : — 
 
 " I sometimes think it is a great misfortune that I was 
 not born a boy, for then any and every employment would 
 be open to me, and I could gain sufficient to support my 
 mother and self. I cannot, as it is, much longer lead my 
 present idle, unsatisfactory life. Ever since the death of 
 my dear father, there has been a something weighing, weigh- 
 ing, weighing upon me. A feeling of dependence, a 
 knowledge that I was poor, that I was a drag upon my dear 
 aunt and uncle. Still, I returned to school, but the death 
 of the only one whom I adored, one whom I only knew and 
 who only knew me, would ever rise before me ; and although 
 I persevered in my studies, I made but little progress. 1 
 gave school up ; money was too precious now to spend in 
 vain. I left, however, with a sigh, for it is sad sometimes to 
 see the plans of your youth frustrated. Dear Aunt Corda 
 and Uncle Milton were then so good as to take me with 
 
Early Youth 67 
 
 them upon a visit to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc. 
 A trip which I most thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated, 
 for with me the sight of great cities never before visited 
 could not fail to interest me and divert my mind from its 
 dark channel of thought. I was very grateful to my aunt 
 and uncle, although I did not express the same in words 
 upon my return home. I met my mother for the first time 
 since our bereavement. She had borne her trials bravely, 
 had suffered more than I had. My poor mother's eyes 
 failed her, her engagement is thrown up, not to be renewed, 
 her eyes had not improved, she cannot work, it is my duty 
 to do my best, and what is that? I have so little talent for 
 writing, but provided I had the material within, it takes 
 years of ill success before even a good writer makes a living. 
 I have sometimes thought of the stage, I love it dearly ; it is 
 a great profession for making money where an actor's 
 efforts are crowned with success. But have I any talent? 
 I fear not. Were I not talented, my ambition would soon 
 bring me to the grave. Oh, God, what shall I do ? Would 
 that I had some one to advise me ! My father, if it be true 
 that spirits are near the loved ones of earth, oh, listen to 
 me, thy child who reveres thy memory as none other can 
 revere it : listen to my prayers that God will lead me to the 
 path in which I shall tread through life : and if it be in thy 
 power, impress me with the advice which thou wouldst give 
 if once more on earth." 
 
 Meeting a lady who had been making a trip abroad, 
 Kate writes : — 
 
 " She has just returned from Europe, and almost disgusted 
 me with the unexcitable manner in which she descanted 
 upon the Old World. I can conceive of anything on 
 earth except taking Europe coolly." 
 
 This was the time when the girl's tendency to in- 
 tolerance should have been repressed, for the only 
 
68 Kate Field 
 
 true attitude toward life is to see each person in his 
 higher possibilities and recognize the ideal in him. 
 " Emerson's beautiful manners," says his friend Mr. 
 Charles Malloy, " were the result of his seeing each 
 man in his ideal self, and to that self Mr. Emerson 
 always addressed himself." There was no wise hand 
 to point this truth out to Kate Field, and she suffered 
 all her life from a too keen sensitiveness to defects, 
 — a fault which her father foresaw, and from which 
 he had vainly endeavored to guard his tenderly be- 
 loved daughter. Adverse criticism is a deteriorating 
 element in character. Nothing is more injurious to 
 the spiritual quality of life than to discern the worse, 
 rather than the better qualities of others. This ten- 
 dency of Kate's was a result of an exceedingly fas- 
 tidious and delicate temperament, whose inbred 
 refinement and artistic exaction dominated her in 
 these early days. Yet, withal, she was generous to 
 a fault, and had her mother's exquisitely kind 
 nature; but this keen perception of defects always 
 remained with her to a degree, and to those who 
 did not discern the real Kate Field under the 
 outer semblance, often misrepresented her. A rare 
 sweetness of nature was always hers, however, and 
 she grew more and more devoted to her enthusiasm 
 for music. 
 
 " Bendelari gives me every encouragement that I 
 can become a prima donna," she writes. " There is 
 a magic charm in the two words, ' I will,' and though 
 I dare not utter them in this connection, I yet act 
 upon that principle." 
 
 Kate's isolation of temperament revealed itself in 
 her earliest girlhood, and she had, too, a curious ten- 
 dency to that depression of spirits from which all her 
 
Early Youth 6g 
 
 life she suffered. In her seventeenth year she writes 
 in her journal : — 
 
 " Oh, if I were a man ! I pity myself, indeed, I do. 
 There is not an ambition, a desire, a feeling, a thought, an 
 impulse, an instinct that I am not obliged to crush. And 
 why? because I am a woman, and a woman must content 
 herself with indoor life, with sewing and babies. Well, 
 they pretend to say that God intended women to be just what 
 they are. I say that He did not, that men have made 
 women what they are, and if they attribute their doings to 
 the Almighty, they lie. The time will come, but my grave 
 will be many centuries old. . . . Well, Excelsior, time will 
 work a cure for all things but the heartache. It seems to 
 me that one of the greatest delights of life to a thinking 
 mind must be a study, — a room religiously your own, the 
 open sesame of which is a charm to be broken by none 
 else ; a sanctuary to which you retire to ponder, think, 
 weep, write, read, pray, knowing that there you may indulge 
 your feelings as the emotions and passions dictate, and no 
 one will dare intrude — no one will scrutinize you, save the 
 All-wise, Omnipresent God. For such a retreat have I ever 
 sighed. . . . When at home I like to be alone, to collect 
 my thoughts, to read and write. The presence of another 
 person renders me so nervous that I am almost ready to 
 fly ; it grates so upon my feelings that I am completely 
 upset and can do nothing. The more I attempt to fight off 
 these feelings the fiercer is the battle, and I at length have 
 decided that I am constituted thus, and that it is entirely 
 useless to ' kick against the pricks.' What person is there 
 that does not sometimes desire to shut the door upon all 
 mankind?" 
 
 Visions rose before her of a life that flashed in 
 brilliant mirage and then vanished, leaving her with 
 a present that seemed ignoble and dull by com- 
 
"JO Kate Field 
 
 parison with her dreams. Yet the girl was full of ten- 
 der household affections, as shown in this record : — 
 
 " Oh, I love my aunt and uncle very, very much ; now that 
 my father is dead I have no one to love but ray mother and 
 them. For the last three years they have done everything 
 in the world for me, and what have I done in return? 
 Nothing. I have been conceited enough to look upon 
 Cordaville as a home, as something to which I was entitled, 
 expecting kindness from Aunt Corda and Uncle Milt rather 
 as a right than as a favor. This is not as it should be. 
 However much I may love and be attached to them, I can- 
 not expect equal feehngs from them. It is not natural. 
 Everything they do for me is a kindness, and consequently 
 increases my affection. Not one thing do I do for them 
 that can cause a similar feeling. On the contrary, I am 
 perfectly useless. I am selfish, have a very disagreeable 
 temper and manner, and of no use about the house, and 
 consequently in the course of time they will become weary 
 of me, for I cannot expect them to make allowances for me 
 as my mother does. Uncle Milt has a great many depend- 
 ent upon him now. Mrs. intends to educate her 
 
 children to earn their own living ; and how disgraceful it 
 would be that while Uncle Milton's own nieces are at work, 
 his wife's niece should be dependent on him. Mother is 
 disabled, and she feels a burden on her friends ; she looks 
 to me and asks to what my tastes lead me ? Oh, my dear 
 father ! What shall I do ? The grave gives not up its 
 dead. I cannot teach ; I have a little talent for singing, but 
 even if my voice improved it would take years of study 
 before I could dream of realizing anything from it." 
 
 Through all her girlhood and indeed through all 
 her life, Kate suffered intensely from that feeling 
 which William Watson well describes as "World- 
 Strangeness," in a poem to which allusion has been 
 
Early Youth 71 
 
 made. There was always in her a certain detach- 
 ment" from ordinary life. She had her own world, 
 one not easily adapted to alien atmospheres. To liter- 
 ature she turned with almost the same enthusiasm as 
 to music, and the reading of Mrs. Jameson's " Diary 
 of an Ennuy6 " interested her, but she criticised its 
 dolorous tone and longed for " less recorded grief 
 and more Italy." After writing several pages regard- 
 ing it, she asks : — 
 
 " I wonder if what I have written is in the least a criti- 
 cism? If my darling father were only alive, what a friend 
 and instructor I should have in him ! It seems very hard to 
 me sometimes that I should be separated from the only one 
 I reverenced on earth. 
 
 " Received a letter from Little Mother. She has visited 
 Mount Auburn and says the iron railing is all that she could 
 wish. Dear Father, if there is no monument to mark the 
 spot where lies all that remains of so glorious a nature, at 
 least his grave is protected from all harm. It is sad to 
 think the absence of gold causes the poor to neglect their 
 angel ones. The love is the same, though the world sees 
 no monumental evidence of it. And, after all, what are 
 appearances ? This world ' is but the baseless fabric of a 
 dream.' 
 
 " Dear ' Little Mother,' she is so sensitive too. Hers is a 
 sad fate, a life of constant self-sacrifice, the death of her 
 adored husband and darling litde son, swindled out of thou- 
 sands of dollars, deprived for the most part of sight, unable 
 to follow her profession, naught of consolation but me, and 
 I am a selfish, disagreeable creature. I ought to be her stay 
 and support ; good daughters are of benefit to their mothers. 
 I am a burden and an expense. My reproaches are many, 
 and yet there is something that hints to me that I must wait 
 
72 Kate Field 
 
 awhile ; a scheme will be developed. Now perhaps this is all 
 dream work — that I ought not to listen to anything but 
 present duty ; and yet I am almost forced to pay attention 
 to this unknown pleader, perhaps a siren's voice to lead me 
 astray. Mine is a hard alternative, either to remain as I am, 
 depending upon the bounty of aunt and uncle with mother 
 likewise a dependent, or try my fortune upon the stage. 
 This is all I can do if I am in the least capacitated for suc- 
 cess. It seems to me that I was not born to be poor or to 
 earn my living in a miserable plodding manner (another 
 dream) ; my tastes, desires, ideas, ambitions, and positive 
 existence are so diametrically opposite. And then I love 
 my darling Aunt Corda so very, very much, I cannot bear 
 to be separated from her ; it seems to me impossible to live 
 apart from her. But then there is Uncle Milt, I love very 
 much, but I fancy lately that he does not care for me ; to- 
 day especially I have noticed how little notice he has taken 
 of me." 
 
 The revealing journal of a girl's hidden life runs 
 on: — 
 
 " Oh, poor me, I 'm the victim of fate, fortune, circum- 
 stances, everything. Aunt Corda and Uncle Milt close the 
 house on Tuesday, and mother and I straggle off to Charles- 
 town there to remain perhaps for the remainder of our 
 natural lives. Well, so much for being a lazy, stupid, con- 
 ceited, selfish idiot. If I had the determination of a mouse, 
 I would be independent of all relatives. But I 've just 
 talent enough to make me despise humble occupations and 
 long for that which it seems to me I can never attain. My 
 talents are those apropos to a wealthy amateur born to 
 gratify her tastes in literature, art, and science all over the 
 world. Situated as I am, my talents are my bane, and it is 
 my firm belief I shall be an unhappy creature as long as I 
 am on earth. No one has the faintest idea of the thoughts 
 
Early Youth 73 
 
 human and celestial that course through my brain. I won- 
 der if it is so with every one. My outer and inner self have 
 not the least sympathy save in affection for those I love. I 
 feel as though my life were wasting away, leaving naught 
 behind to mark the days, hours, minutes, seconds. What 
 was I created for? Oh, how wicked to make God account- 
 able for my own misdeeds. I was born for a purpose. 
 
 " It is not the love of one who has been benefited ; it is 
 a love apart from that. Had she the same love for me, she 
 could not part from me and be happy ; but her husband is 
 the receiver of this love, and I am loved slightly as a niece. 
 I must not expect more, so must plod on without the star 
 of my existence. Oh, my dear father, I am not forgetting 
 my love for thee when I write this ; no one can ever supply 
 thy place. I love Uncle Milt because he has been kind to 
 me \ he will not let me go farther." 
 
 Again Kate records in her journal : — 
 
 " Later in the evening we met Mr. Nat. Hale and passed 
 a very pleasant half-hour with him. He is a man of posi- 
 tive genius in some respects." 
 
 "We were introduced to Rev. Edward Everett Hale and 
 Dr. Hedge. Dr. Hedge enjoys a fine reputation as a theo- 
 logical writer, as a man of great talents, but his face is by 
 no means a pleasing one to a stranger. It is strong, hard, 
 unyielding, not good-natured, unsympathetic. His manner 
 is not winning. I should like to have heard him converse, 
 but had not the opportunity. My verdict on his face may 
 all be wrong." 
 
 " Gertrude is a difficult role, — one of great vivacity and 
 affection, of light and shade. I know how it should be 
 done, but I am unable to carry out my conception. Here- 
 tofore I have rehearsed the part awfully; I trust to the 
 
74 Kate Field 
 
 inspiration of the moment if there is such a thing in me as 
 inspiration. Why cannot I do it as well as other girls of 
 my age ? Inability is the reason. Well, well, Katy, you are 
 a poor, miserable little thing, fit for nothing but to brood 
 over her uselessness in this world and unfitness for the 
 next ! " 
 
 " If I ask myself this awful question, ' For what do I 
 live? ' I can give no answer save ' self.' Knowing this, why 
 do I not reform? It seems to me that I am the incarna- 
 tion of all that is evil. There can surely be no one so little 
 affected to good works as myself. Alas, alas ! the angel 
 does not smile on me ! " 
 
 " I suppose I am ridiculously sensitive, but the least appar- 
 ent slight affects me and makes me dolorous lachrymose. If 
 Uncle Milt were only a little different, if he would treat me 
 more as a father treats a child, if he would let me love him 
 in a fatherly way, — I should feel so much better. I miss 
 my darling father, — oh, so much, so much ! no one knows 
 how much I miss him. If I could only fill a little of the 
 void his loss has left in my heart, it would be such a relief 
 to me. But no ; no longer can I look for a father on 
 earth ; I must seek higher. I have two in heaven : my 
 earthly and my Heavenly Father ; and this thought that I 
 have two such spiritual guardians should make me better. 
 Life is not everlasting, and I shall be with them by-and-by. 
 Oh, my revered father ! if thou canst see thy poor Kate 
 now, pity her ! and if it is according to divine law that the 
 spirit out of the flesh may commune with the spirit in the 
 flesh, infuse thy counsels into my soul in such a way that I 
 may know they are thy teachings ! Alas ! I fear there is no 
 truth in Spiritualism ! " 
 
 "... be a heavenly union ; but it never is, therefore 
 where shall I seek for aid? Alas, I know not ! No one to 
 
Early Youth 75 
 
 instruct me j no one to tell me in what channel to direct my 
 powers ; no one to point out my talents ; no one to say to 
 me, ' Well done ! ' or the reverse. It is my misfortune to 
 live among those merely equal or inferior to me ; I can 
 learn nothing from them ; whereas could I be surrounded 
 by superiors my steps would be quickened in following in 
 the path of people of knowledge. Oh, my dear father ! 
 you alone are the one to instruct me ! My aspirations are 
 so vehement, surely, surely they must be based upon some 
 little talent ! Shall I never meet with sympathy thorough 
 and entire ? What happiness when found ! Am I treating 
 my dearest, kindest friends with injustice or ingratitude in 
 writing thus? " 
 
 " Uncle Milt is very, very kind to me ; and, oh, how I 
 wish he were more like my darling father, that I might love 
 him in his place ! But, oh, there is a space in my heart 
 that is always yearning to be filled and yet never will be ! 
 for where shall I find a second father? Oh, how I need 
 his counsel ! He alone could tell me what my life should 
 be. Sometimes I long that I could treat Uncle Milt as a 
 father, but he will not let me. Oh, I feel very lonely ! " 
 
 " Starr King occupied the head of the table opposite us. 
 He is a very pleasant man, of winning and genial manners 
 and ready repartee." 
 
 " That 's the best I can do to-night, and I am sure it is 
 very bad. Nothing I despise more than bad poetry, and I 
 cannot help rhyming, though knowing what a fool I am 
 making of myself." 
 
 " The fact is. Aunt Corda is becoming decidedly misan- 
 thropic. I know not sometimes what is the matter with 
 her. There is nothing sunny and joyous about. She is 
 indifferent to every one. I love Aunt Corda passionately ; 
 she is very, very kind to me. . . ." 
 
76 Kate Field 
 
 " I trust then to begin a course of History, — one thing 
 needful in a person who pretends to the least education, 
 and something in which I am wofuUy deficient. I think 
 that I am more interested in Biography and Metaphysics 
 than any other styles of reading. Philosophy in any form 
 is delightful to me. Poetry is gradually winning a good- 
 sized place in my heart. 
 
 " I am losing all my taste for the languages. The longer 
 I live the more I desire to become acquainted with homely 
 English and its army of invincible writers. I find that these 
 furious students of the modern languages devote so much 
 time to them that they neglect their mother tongue. The 
 system is all wrong ; I for one shall not follow it. Were I 
 able, I should continue Italian." 
 
 " Uncle Milt is talking rather seriously about Europe ; 
 but if he goes I do not know that he will take me ; or if I 
 should be invited I do not know that I ought to go, leaving 
 poor little mother all alone. I feel that this climate is in- 
 juring me, that I cannot be well here, and that the East 
 winds may kill me. But to go to the South or West, live 
 and be slighted, as I know I should, without the least sym- 
 pathy or appreciation, would be as fatal as the East winds. 
 There is nothing left me but Italy ; and that is a doubt, 
 almost a myth. I hope for the best, and do nothing. This 
 is not right ; I ought to scribble daily, and see if I cannot 
 bring forth something worth being the author of. It is 
 difficult to get up any enthusiasm here where no one is 
 interested or spurs me on, and writing ought not to be 
 mechanical. The other day, upon returning from Boston, 
 after having become excited over Miss Cushman, I shut 
 myself up and wrote some verses to her in a very short 
 time, copied them, showed them to Aunt Corda, who said 
 they were the best I had ever written ; sent a copy to Mr. 
 Clapp of the ' Gazette ; ' and next time I called upon Miss 
 Cushman left a copy in her room. I did this to find out 
 
Early Youth 'j'j 
 
 whether they were good or bad. Miss Cushman tells Mrs. 
 Hears that the verses are very clever indeed ; the ' Gazette ' 
 pubhshes them ; Lincoln Emerson, a finely educated man 
 and teacher, says they are good ; Mr. Spofford, I hear, 
 acknowledges something approving ; I hear something else. 
 What am I to infer? That they are trash, or good enough 
 for me to try again? 'Alas! poor Yorick ! ' I will per- 
 severe in spite of everything, and wait for time to bring 
 approval. I cannot think that I have all this desire for 
 authorship, all this love for it, and yet no glimmering of 
 talent. I should be perfectly miserable if I thought that I 
 could never write. I can better bear the thought that I 
 can never sing, and this makes me think that I can or will 
 write better than I can sing. After all, I prefer the fame 
 of an author. The singer or actor, if successful, reaps 
 golden harvests, is feted for the time being; but death 
 knocks at the door and drives away friends, fame, all. No 
 sooner dead than forgotten. A few remember the genius ; 
 but the next generation know of no such person, save that 
 the ' Cyclopedia ' devoted a few lines to her, and some 
 author may refer to her as having been great. How fleet- 
 ing, how sad, is such fame ! But the author, how different ! 
 He makes not a fortune, perhaps, his life may not be so 
 great a triumph ; but his brain-work is strewn all over the 
 world, he is everybody's friend and companion, everybody 
 loves him, he is a universal benefactor ; and death, instead 
 of ending his career of good, gradually increases it, until his 
 name becomes most sacred. No fame is so lasting as that 
 of a great author. Marble crumbles, canvas defaces, the 
 voice is hushed, action still, but thought is eternal ; books 
 must be renev/ed. Viewing it in this light, there can be 
 but one choice j but if I could be both, this is what I long 
 for. Are the two incompatible ? I think they minister one 
 to the other. And then it must be so glorious to inspire 
 thousands of people instantaneously with the same feelings 
 
78 Kate Field 
 
 by which you are excited ; to sway so many human beings 
 by a power superior to them. Oh, it must be sweet to 
 taste, as delightful as it is fleeting ! If I must make a choice, 
 it will be for authorship, — that is, if I have the necessary 
 materials to work with. I wonder what the future will bring 
 forth. It is well, perhaps, that I cannot read it.'' 
 
 Tuesday, June 22d. This morning I received a cunning 
 little note from Charlotte Cushman. She says she will write 
 again. Oh, if I could only have a European correspondence 
 with her, how delightful it would ht/or me, probably a bore 
 to her. I intend to reply to this note to see what it may 
 call forth on her part. She has a bright mind. 
 
 I feel that I ought to write for myself. I cannot keep 
 this sensation out of my mind. It worries me that I can- 
 not decide upon any one thing as a profession, and I know 
 not whether my indecision is owing to my want of character 
 or the undeveloped state of my faculties. No one could 
 render me a greater service than to inform me if my powers 
 are in the zenith or no. If they are, I am a very ordinary 
 person, and can do nothing but teach a primary school. 
 If not, I ought to wait and see what time unfolds. With- 
 out knowing which, I am waiting for time and so im- 
 patiently that I become almost crazy with misgivings now 
 and then. But work is the only improver. If I do not 
 study, I cannot improve. Sometimes I think that God 
 would not endow man with such vehement aspirations if 
 he did not intend to have them fulfilled. This is my 
 theory, but if every one had this feeling then it is over- 
 thrown, for they are rarely realized. Will some friendly 
 spirit impress me with the truth? I have often thought 
 that if Spiritualism were true, my dear father would make 
 himself manifest in some way, but he does not, and this is 
 one reason why I doubt its truth. He was so interested in 
 the subject when alive, that he would endeavor to make 
 
Early Youth 79 
 
 us believers. We do not seek mediums, to be sure, for it 
 is too expensive ; but when we did, I, at least, was not satis- 
 fied with the communications I received. Spiritualism is 
 strange and more than "passing strange." 
 
 Strangely introspective is this for a girl of eigh- 
 teen. Bettina's letters to Goethe hardly reveal more 
 intricate depths. But the way out of the labyrinth 
 always reveals its clue to eager, aspiring youth, and 
 that of the Cretan designed by Daedalus was not more 
 intricate and involved than the labyrinth of life was 
 to prove to be for Kate Field. 
 
FLORENTINE DAYS 
 
 " And day by day the mountains seem to grow 
 Enwrapt more royally in robes of state 
 As with the sight of thy young face elate ; 
 And the sun's flush is brighter, so to show 
 It kissed thee first, to all the world below. 
 And mounteth guard at noontide as to wait 
 And know thy happy footsteps are not late." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 O Florence, with thy Tuscan fields and hills 
 And famous Arno, fed from all the rills, 
 The brightest star of star-bright Italy. 
 
 Aubrey de Verb, 
 
 Florentine Days. At Villa Bellosguardo. Enthusiasm 
 FOR Italy. George Eliot and the Trollopes. Walter 
 Savage Landcr. At Casa Guidi with the Brownings. 
 
 THE open doors that suddenly reveal themselves 
 in life as one approaches a wall, apparently 
 blank and forbidding in its positive limitation, are 
 among the most vivid intimations of the divine 
 leading. There is no absolute fate or destiny super- 
 seding the individual will ; but the life of aspiration has 
 its attendant angels, who, while unseen, lead the way 
 and reveal an ideal existing in the realm of thought 
 which may be actualized in daily life. Kate Field's 
 spiritual nature always dominated her outer person- 
 ality. She was not what the world calls religious, — 
 she had, indeed, not sufficiently realized the divine 
 aid that pours itself through form and ceremonial 
 when genuinely sought; but she had lived the life 
 of the spirit in its larger sense of intellect and aspira- 
 tion. She was always in a curiously close relation 
 to unseen influences whose causes she had not 
 learned to recognize, but whose effects she felt 
 wonderingly. There was something in the girl too 
 fine for the world's coarse uses ; and who shall say but 
 
84 Kate Field 
 
 that the father who idolized her was not more potent 
 to aid in shaping her course from the unseen world 
 to which he had passed than he could have been 
 even in the human life? The potency of invisible 
 causes ran as a strand through the entire earthly ex- 
 perience of Kate Field. Her life was a spiritual 
 drama. The realm of ideals always lies behind the 
 realm of action, and to discern those ideals is the true 
 purpose of life. The stress and storm period which 
 all young people of keen sensibilities experience to 
 a greater or less degree in earliest youth had passed 
 by and left Kate none the worse, perhaps, although 
 a certain inborn tendency to an almost morbid 
 sensitiveness always lingered in her. She was alive 
 in every fibre of her being, and every touch and 
 tone thrilled, whether the response was discord or 
 harmony. 
 
 There now rose before the girl enchanted visions 
 of song and Italy. It was suddenly decided that the 
 one intense desire of her heart should be granted, 
 — that she should go to Italy to study music. The 
 Sanfords were going abroad, and the decision was 
 made to take their niece with them. Kate was in 
 the first flush of girlish loveliness. One evening 
 about this time she is described by a friend as ap- 
 pearing in a lilac gown, d^colletS, sleeveless, reveal- 
 ing her beautiful arms and the fine poise of the head : 
 the clustering auburn curls tied back in the fashion 
 of the time, her luminous blue eyes shining, and the 
 faint rose tints deepening in the animated face. 
 Florence, that Flower of all Cities and City of all 
 Flowers, beckoned her on. What wonder the girl 
 danced on air and gave herself up to the long, long 
 thoughts of youth ! 
 
Florentine Days 85 
 
 For always is it true that, — 
 
 " Something sweet 
 Follows youth with flying feet, 
 And it never comes again." 
 
 Dreams of the lyric stage again rose around her 
 like an incantation. The promise of definite musical 
 study under a master caught her away to new life. 
 And still one sad strain persisted, — the parting with 
 her mother, who was then playing an engagement in 
 the South. " Were you only going with us, darling 
 mother," she writes, " but courage ! it may not be 
 so long before we meet." 
 
 Although music was her first love, literature was 
 her second ; and the eager girl, with something of that 
 executive capacity that distinguished her in after life, 
 made an arrangement to write for the Boston " Courier," 
 then edited by Mr. Lunt, a brother-in-law of Dr. Par- 
 sons, the poet and translator of Dante. Mr. Lunt 
 was a cultivated man of letters, and a recent tour 
 abroad had brought him into contact with many 
 eminent persons. He offered to give the young girl 
 letters to the Brownings and Trollopes, and also to 
 the Hawthornes and Ex-President Franklin Pierce, 
 who were then in Rome. And thus companioned 
 Kate set forth upon the journey which stamped upon 
 her at this most impressible age images of beauty 
 which sunk deep into her nature, pervading it forever 
 after with that indefinable charm and exaltation 
 which was always felt and which can no more be 
 defined than can the fragrance of a rose. Such ex- 
 periences in the happy hours of youth lie in character, 
 moulding life. 
 
 It was on Jan. 8, 1859, that Kate with her uncle and 
 aunt embarked on the steamer " Fulton," sailing from 
 
86 Kate Field 
 
 New York to Havre. Going directly to Paris, they 
 stopped at the H6tel Louvre, opposite the magnifi- 
 cent palace of art whose galleries held Kate under a 
 spell of enchantment. The Paris of that time is hardly 
 to be compared to the wonderful city of to-day, and 
 still, newly transformed as it was by Napoleon, it 
 appeared in great splendor to the American travel- 
 lers. The drives through the boulevards, the visits 
 to celebrated churches and monuments, filled the days 
 with delight. With her inborn dramatic feeling Kate's 
 first longing was to see the interior of the Theatre 
 Francais, the scene of Rachel's triumphs, and on the 
 evening of January 30, — an evening that made itself 
 a date in her life, — this desire was gratified. Curi- 
 ously the play happened to be one which her father 
 had translated (under the title of "Gabrielle") and 
 adapted to the American stage. The characters of 
 the Marquis and Marquise were played that night by 
 M. Bressant and Mile. Augustine Brohan with that 
 marvellous perfection of art that always invests the 
 Theatre Francais. These fine comedians played with 
 the naturalness of life in a drawing-room, and with 
 the entire freedom from the rant that at that time too 
 largely pervaded the American stage. One morning 
 Kate passed in the Chapelle Expiatoire erected to the 
 memory of Louis XVL and Marie Antoinette, which 
 is on the site of the old cemetery of the Madeleine. 
 In this cemetery, as will be remembered, the bodies 
 of the ill-fated royal pair had lain, from the time of 
 their execution, to 1815, when they were removed to 
 the royal vault at St. Denis. "This is one of the 
 most interesting places I have ever seen," wrote Kate 
 to her mother of the Chapelle. Mr. Sanford took 
 his wife and niece to the Morgue, but permitted them 
 
Florentine Days 8y 
 
 too brief a glimpse to satisfy the girl, who, with a 
 foretaste of the independence that characterized her 
 womanhood, took a cab alone the next day, and 
 had herself driven there, only to flee from a horrible 
 figure newly brought, which was too much for her 
 endurance. 
 
 One evening in February was made memorable 
 to Kate by seeing Dejazet, the great French come- 
 dienne who had retired from the stage some twenty 
 years before. By some good fortune for the Ameri- 
 can girl who was so eagerly absorbing Parisian life, 
 Ddjazet reappeared for a brief season at this time to 
 astonish the world, and herself as well, with her per- 
 formance in " The First Arms of Richelieu," in which 
 she played the role of Richelieu himself at fifteen. 
 Her make-up was so perfect that people forgot 
 she was a woman. Her costume was exquisite, her 
 manner boyish, but full of the courtly grace of the 
 character ; and while her singing voice was slightly 
 worn, she yet held the house with her song, with that 
 finished power of the great artist. 
 
 At the Vaudeville there was then running, as a new 
 play, " The Romance of a Poor Young Man." Kate 
 was impressed by it, and wrote to her mother, saying : 
 " Oh, such a beautiful subdued play ! But all for the 
 man. It would suit Mr. Davenport. And such a 
 wonderful actor as La Fontaine, who personates the 
 hero." The perfection of the ensemble in French 
 theatres surprised Kate, as she had never before seen 
 minor characters perfectly played. On another ex- 
 perience, she thus wrote to her mother : — 
 
 " To-day I have been to the H6tel des Invalides, where 
 repose the ashes of the first Napoleon. I can give you no 
 description of the grandeur of this chapel and of the splen- 
 
88 Kate Field 
 
 dor of the new sarcophagus, in which the remains are to 
 be placed, but not for two years. Louis Napoleon is a 
 great man, without doubt. He is determined to leave the 
 Napoleon stamp upon every great work in France. I do 
 not see who is so well fitted to govern this nation as him- 
 self. The French need a master. Yesterday the Legisla- 
 tive Session opened with a speech from the Emperor. Not 
 one word in reference to America." 
 
 Another Parisian experience was in going to a ball 
 given by Mr. Mason, virho was then the American 
 Minister. Kate's gown for this festivity was of white 
 tulle and the traditional blue sash of the jettne fille 
 of the day, with her curls tied back with blue ribbon, 
 and she enjoyed the evening with all the zest of a 
 girl who loves to dance, and for whom partners were 
 eager. The treasures of art in the Louvre held her 
 through long mornings, and she was half averse to 
 leaving the brilliant city, when after a few weeks the 
 travellers set their faces toward Rome, embarking 
 from Marseilles and sailing on the blue Mediterranean, 
 with constant views of the Alps, to Civita Vecchia, 
 where they landed and took a coupd in a diligence 
 for Rome, a distance of forty-seven miles, which it 
 took eleven hours to accomplish. The railroad from 
 this point to the Eternal City was completed in the 
 May of that year, but on this second day of March, 
 when the little party whose fortunes we are follow- 
 ing set out, the diligence was the only conveyance. 
 They entered the Eternal City by St. Peter's and the 
 Vatican Palace, under a blue cloudless sky; and in 
 the luminous Italian air, the purple hills gleamed 
 like an encircling ring of amethyst. Kate was 
 enraptured with the beauty. " Not Rome," she ex- 
 
Florentine Days 8g 
 
 claimed, " but the seventh heaven." She was always 
 keenly alive to the beauty of nature; and from the 
 Italy of her first youth to the marvellous glaciers of 
 Alaska and the wonders of the Yellowstone which 
 she visited in her later Hfe, she was always " alive to 
 gentle influence " in landscape loveliness. " Rome is 
 a thousand times more beautiful than Paris," the girl 
 wrote, feeling at once that intense love for Italy that 
 always remained in her life. The enchantment of 
 early spring, bursting into bloom and fragrance, was 
 over Rome, and the girl breathed the air in mute 
 ecstasy. That wonderful view from the Pincian hill 
 where the sunset splendor is seen beyond the dome 
 of St. Peter's ; the long and picturesque flight of steps 
 that led up from the Piazza di Spagna to the Via 
 Sistina; the glory of alabaster and gold in the rich 
 temple of St. Paul's outside the walls; the Italian 
 landscape with all Rome in the valley below, as seen 
 from the heights of the Janiculum, — all these held 
 Kate as under a magic spell. There were drives on 
 the purple Campagna with its air of sublime deso- 
 lation ; there were descents into the catacombs of St. 
 Calixtus ; there were the pilgrimages to churches and 
 paintings. There was a morning in the impressive 
 Coliseum, with its oval glass windows for a roof, 
 where one gazes into the infinite depths of blue sky. 
 Oh, that first experience in the Eternal City ! Can 
 any other word or moment in life ever efface it from 
 its supreme rank in memory? 
 
 The Sanfords were fortunate in securing a fur- 
 nished apartment at No. 6i Via del Babuino. The Car- 
 nival was just ending, and Kate participated in the 
 shower of confetti on the Corso, and in the opening 
 days of Lent they all made a flying trip to Naples 
 
go Kate Field 
 
 and Vesuvius. Returning, they began to find out 
 old and new friends, of whom, among the former, 
 were Charlotte Cushman and Harriet Hosmer, who, 
 with Miss Stebbins, were all occupying an apart- 
 ment together at No. 38 Via Gregoriana. This was 
 one of the most beautiful locations in Rome. The 
 street ran up to the Pincian, the house being hardly 
 ten minutes' walk from that famous promenade, and 
 the outlook from it at that time included a grand view 
 of St. Peter's, with all the picturesque outline of the 
 city and purple Campagna stretching away into azure 
 distance. In front lay the Mignanelli Gardens, and 
 the sculptured Madonna of the Column of the Imma- 
 culate Conception was silhouetted against the deep 
 blue sky. The vista included the Castle of San 
 Angelo, the far away heights of San Pietro, and the 
 famous sculptured gateway of the Villa Pamfili Doria. 
 These, with the gray old Coliseum and the lofty tower 
 of the Capitol bathed in the golden sunshine, shot 
 through with azure lights, made up a picture which 
 held Kate in a rapture of enjoyment. 
 
 Miss Cushman welcomed Miss Field and the San- 
 fords with characteristically warm-hearted cordiality. 
 " Miss Cushman rushed down upon us the moment 
 she found we were here," wrote Kate to her mother. 
 " She looks as bright and well as possible." Invita- 
 tions to social festivities poured in upon the travel- 
 lers, and Kate writes of the charming way in which 
 Miss Cushman sang some Enghsh ballads and a 
 brogue song at an evening party. " Hattie Hosmer 
 came in last night about midnight," Kate writes, 
 " and later we drove her home. She is praised by 
 every one here, — a universal favorite. . . . The air 
 is so delicious. Now I am off for St. Peter's with 
 
Floretitine Days gi 
 
 Miss Cushman." The great actress was noble in her 
 friendships as well as in her art, and in all her after- 
 life Kate never forgot the kindness that made her 
 first experiences in the Eternal City so beautiful. 
 Young as she was, Kate's distinctive individuality 
 made itself felt by every one. " She was always a 
 personage, even as a girl of sixteen," Mrs. Edwin P. 
 Whipple has said of her; and she united the some- 
 what paradoxical qualities of being very womanly in 
 her early girlhood, and of retaining the freshness and 
 simplicity of the girl in her later womanhood. Life 
 was new every morning and fresh every evening to 
 her. She lived always in that region of spiritual 
 progress where perpetually new experiences keep 
 life in freshness and exaltation. On one of these 
 evenings, in Rome, Kate saw Salvini for the first 
 time. The play was " Othello." " He is superb," 
 writes Kate to her mother, " very tall, handsome, 
 and a superior tragedian." 
 
 Kate became wholly enamoured with Rome. She 
 writes : — 
 
 " I like it, I love it, and I only wish I could remain here 
 for months. The weather is charming, the sky is so blue. 
 The carnival was glorious, and I was in it all the time, and 
 what fun I did have. I was in a carriage with a boy's hat 
 on, the only one in the Corso. I have just sent a letter in 
 rhyme to the ' Courier.' I am having singing lessons of 
 Sebastiani, and if I only enjoy these for a month, it will 
 still be a great gain. . . . Last Sunday I went with Miss 
 Cushman, Miss Stebbins, Hattie Hosmer, Mr. Ward, a 
 young sculptor, and Mr. Ned Cushman, to a picnic at 
 Hadrian Villa (six miles out of Rome). We had a glorious 
 day among the ruins, the mountains, and the wonderful sky. 
 The country around Rome is made for drives and rides." 
 
92 Kate Field 
 
 Again the girl writes to her mother : — 
 
 " Miss Cushman wants me to go to England this Spring, 
 but I want to study with Romani in Florence. Miss Steb- 
 bins is a noble woman, and has certainly a great talent for 
 sculpture. The Brownings are here, and have been all 
 winter. Hawthorne and President Pierce have just arrived. 
 Rome agrees with me so much better than Paris. Then 
 the green fields, the ruins, the paintings, the sculpture, all 
 the life I love so much. If only you were with me, darling 
 mother. There may be a bright future for us." 
 
 One evening Miss Cushman gave a musicale for 
 Kate, who was herself asked to sing. The famous 
 hostess had no idea of anything more than a school- 
 girl's performance, and her friend Miss Stebbins said 
 of the surprise she felt in Kate's voice and expression : 
 " I wish you could have seen Meg Merrilies open her 
 eyes. ' Why, I am completely amazed, Kate ! You 
 sing beautifully. You have charmed every one,' 
 she exclaimed." Among Miss Cushman's guests that 
 evening was Levasseur, the famous comedian of the 
 Palais Royal in Paris, who sang some acting songs in 
 a manner that delighted the company with his inim- 
 itable art. 
 
 " Miss Cushman says Garcia, in London, is the finest 
 teacher in the world," writes Kate to her mother, " and 
 urges uncle and aunt to leave me in England. I am crazy to 
 be at work. I want to see what effect the change of climate 
 will have on my voice, and I am so anxious to be inde- 
 pendent, and have my dear little mother in a position wor- 
 thy of her tastes and talents. I shall never feel comfortable 
 until I am my own mistress and have an occupation. Not 
 that I do not enjoy the present ; not, indeed, that I do not 
 appreciate my opportunities ; but I feel that if anything is 
 
Florentine Days 93 
 
 to be done now is the time, and Aunt Corda has become 
 willing that I should go on the stage as a profession. I am 
 afraid there 's no chance for me, but I hope for the best. 
 Rome is no place for music, Naples is better, but I want 
 to study in Florence with Romani. . . . President Pierce 
 called on us yesterday. He was very polite, but does not 
 seem to be a man of much fun." 
 
 The Brownings had arrived in Rome in the late 
 December of 1858, and had been for some three 
 months settled in their apartments at No. 43 in the 
 Bocca di Leone when MisS Field and the Sanfords 
 reached the city. On New Year's Day of 1859, Mrs. 
 Browning, writing to Ruskin, said : — 
 
 "What would this life be, dear Mr. Ruskin, if it had not 
 eternal relations ? For my part, if I did not believe so, I 
 should lie down and die. Nothing would be worth having, 
 certainly. But I am what many people call a mystic, and 
 that I myself call a realist, because I consider that every 
 step of the foot or stroke of the pen here has some real 
 connection with and result in the Hereafter. I believe in 
 a perpetual sequence according to God's will, and in what 
 has been called a ' correspondence ' between the natural 
 world and the spiritual." 
 
 In these words is expressed something of the beau- 
 tiful and helpful influence which was about to come 
 from Mrs. Browning into the life of Kate Field. 
 
 There was then living in one of the villas at the 
 height of Bellosguardo a very interesting and accom- 
 plished English lady. Miss Isabella Blagden (" always 
 called Isa by her friends," as Mr. Trollope says in his 
 reminiscences), who was the most intimate friend of 
 Mrs. Browning. The villa overlooked the Valley of 
 
94 Kate Field 
 
 the Arno, and Florence, set gem-like amid the purple 
 hills. Looking over the city and its cypress-covered 
 slopes Fiesole was seen, and the view is one of the 
 most enchanting in Italy. From the bleak New Eng- 
 land winter to this fair loveliness of the Italian spring, 
 which intimates its approach as early as February, 
 made a rapture of delight to the young girl. With 
 her passionate love of music she was inclined to 
 measure every one from the standard of musical cul- 
 ture, and one smiles to read, in one of her letters to 
 her mother, this mention of Mr. Browning: — 
 
 " Mr. Browning is the person whose good opinion I am 
 most anxious for, and to whom I am already very much 
 attached. He feels music, and I should like to sing before 
 him. There is something about him that I fancy marvel- 
 lously. Last night he said to me, ' You are very ambitious ; 
 you are the most ambitious person of my acquaintance.' I 
 laughed and asked him how he had arrived at such a con- 
 clusion. ' Oh, I can tell by your eyes,' he said. ' How 
 so ? ' I asked. ' I can detect it in their glisten,' he replied. 
 ' Well,' I said, 'it is no great crime to be ambitious, is it? ' 
 ' No, indeed,' he returned ; ' I admire it ; I would not give a 
 straw for a person who was not.' " 
 
 A little homesickness came over the girl at times, 
 and she writes to her mother : — 
 
 " You are mistaken when you think I can take care of 
 myself. I don't like to ; I want some one to love me, to 
 take an interest in me, some one to whom I can say. What 
 do you think? some one to kiss and tease and scold me." 
 
 It was fitting that love should first come to her in 
 the romantic atmosphere of Italy. Here she met a 
 young artist whose presence thrilled through her 
 
Florentine Days 95 
 
 days and dreams, and a new chapter opened in her 
 life, not less determining, it may be, although it did 
 not end in marriage. Neither ever married, and curi- 
 ously both died within the same year. 
 
 Kate threw herself ardently into her press letters 
 and writes to her mother that she has never shown any 
 of them to Mr. Browning, but that Miss Blagden has 
 told him of her efforts. " I could not possibly show 
 one to him, he is too great," she writes. " But to 
 show you what kind hearts Mr. and Mrs. Browning 
 have, I send you two notes that they sent me yester- 
 day with Landor's autograph. I wrote them a few 
 lines thanking them for a letter of Lytton's. To Miss 
 Blagden Mrs. Browning writes of me as ' dear Miss 
 Field.' " 
 
 Under the celebrated Italian master Romani, Kate 
 made progress in her musical study. She entered 
 with ardor on "Don Pasquale " to learn it by heart, with 
 absolute assurance, and to express the words in her 
 countenance. " If I can once break through the ice 
 of my face," she writes, " I shall be rejoiced." She 
 made constant advance, but she was as self-distrust- 
 ful as she was earnest. The effect of so passionate 
 an intensity for any form of art is to produce inevit- 
 able self-distrust on the part of the student. In one 
 of her letters from Florence she says : — 
 
 " Every Monday evening we go to the TroUopes and 
 there meet a half dozen Italians, politicians, literati, etc. 
 Dair Ongaro gave me his new book of poems and looked 
 unutterable things at me, but he can't make an impression 
 to save his life. Last Monday slavery was attacked, and I, 
 an American, in the mingling of Italian, French, and Eng- 
 lish, had to maintain my country against seven adversaries. 
 Foreigners cannot understand the 'peculiar institution,' 
 
96 Kate Field 
 
 and that it is no child's play to free 4,000,000 blacks. The 
 English, the very creatures who forced it upon us, are most 
 bitter against us. Mr. Trollope is such a fine naan. His wife 
 is promiscuously talented, writes for the Athenaeum, composes 
 music, translates, etc., but does not go very far in any one 
 thing. What do you think Mr. Jarves said the other day? 
 ' It is impossible for you to lie. You have a tell-tale face.' 
 And then again, ' I should like to see you when you are 
 thoroughly smashed' (meaning in love). 'Why?' 'Be- 
 cause you will love with so much earnestness and passion.' 
 We were all talking about love. I could not but laugh and 
 think how different you viewed me, as one devoid totally of 
 sentiment and passion. People here think me so full of 
 passion and truth." 
 
 This judgment of Kate was the true one. Her 
 nature can only be described as that of fire under ice, 
 or as flame through alabaster. She had the intensity 
 that can only be compared to that rate of vibration 
 which is so far beyond the vision of the eye as to 
 appear motionless. 
 
 During the past two years of this period, her range 
 of reading had been of a character to stimulate and 
 develop her powers in a lofty way. Her note-books 
 show her citations from Dante, Shakespeare, Cole- 
 ridge, Cervantes, Mazzini, Carlyle, Heine ; and she 
 had entered into a speaking acquaintance, at least, 
 with the great Latin poets through translation, be- 
 fore Mr. Landor's offer to teach her Latin led her 
 into a fairly adequate familiarity with them in their 
 own tongue. Often does the selection of a quotation 
 unconsciously offer a key to the inner life, and in the 
 line, — 
 
 " O, they love least that let men know their love," 
 
Florentine Days 97 
 
 which Kate copied from the "Two Gentlemen of 
 Verona," there is more than a hint of her own nature. 
 Again, on a page of these note-books, which are 
 rather remarkable in their range as representing the 
 intellectual life of a girl of seventeen and eighteen, 
 one finds this selection : " Hesiod as quoted by- 
 Aristotle divided the world into classes: the first 
 have sense of their own; the second the sense of 
 their neighbors ; and the third have neither the one 
 nor the other." 
 
 Emerson was to her opening life a vital inspiration, 
 and her note-books show hosts of pages copied from 
 his essays and then translated into French. She 
 read George Sand's " Consuelo " in the original, and 
 records the curious impressions that it made on her. 
 Emerson's poems, too, — the noblest poetic work 
 that has ever been produced in America, — appealed 
 deeply to this high-souled girl. She had copied such 
 passages as these: 
 
 " Give all to love ! 
 Obey thy heart ; 
 Friends, kindred, days. 
 Estate, good-fame, 
 Plans, credit, and the Muse, — 
 Nothing refuse." 
 
 And again : — 
 
 " I hold it of little matter 
 Whether your jewel be of pure water. 
 A rose diamond, or a white ; 
 But whether it dazzle rae with light." 
 
 Another quotation from some classic author runs : 
 " Honor and virtue are ornaments of the soul, without 
 which the body, though it be really beautiful, ought 
 
 not to be thought so." 
 
 7 
 
gS Kate Field 
 
 There are hundreds of pages full of the choicest 
 selections from choice literature, which she copied, 
 and out of this mental food the girl's mind assimi- 
 lated a store of what became transmuted into her 
 
 character. 
 
 " The high that proved too high, 
 The heroic for earth too hard." 
 
 Fortunate is youth when it feeds on such thought 
 as that represented by the note-books of Kate Field, 
 for it becomes " music sent up to God," and is con- 
 stantly creating for the one who possesses it the 
 larger and fairer world into which the soul enters 
 and lives. It is since Kate Field has gone from this 
 part of life that the wonderful poem from Stephen 
 Phillips has appeared, with its tragic portrayal of 
 the death of a soul : — 
 
 " She felt it die a little every day, 
 Flutter less wildly and more feebly pray. 
 Stiller it grew ; at times she felt it pull 
 Imploring thinly something beautiful, 
 And in the night was painfully awake 
 And struggled in the darkness till daybreak." 
 
 Yet something of the instinct to guard against this 
 spiritual suicide stirred in the young girl, and she fed 
 her soul on the loftiest literature of thought. Read- 
 ing is largely the fibre of which the mind creates its 
 quality, and the choice made is an unerring indication 
 of the inner life. 
 
 Into the cause of Italian liberty Kate entered with 
 all her heart. In allusion to the varying fortunes of 
 her American press correspondence, she said, " I 
 want to write in a paper which does not assert that 
 Liberty is too good for Italy." 
 
 In the late winter of i860, Mrs. Field joined her 
 
Florentine Days 99 
 
 daughter in FloVence. " I am almost happy," writes 
 Kate to her Aunt Corda ; " I believe at last I have a 
 mother." The idolized young aunt was necessary to 
 complete her happiness, and in reply to a letter 
 explaining an unforeseen delay in Mr. and Mrs. San- 
 ford's arrival Kate wrote to her aunt: "Your letter 
 gave me more than one twinge about the heart, but I 
 must, I must, I must submit to destiny, so I'll no 
 longer implore for that which will not be granted. 
 You know how 1 long to embrace you — here let it 
 end." She explains further to her aunt that she is in 
 no need of new clothes, as she is not going into dress 
 society, and adds : — 
 
 " Mrs. Jarves has asked me to go to the masked ball at the 
 Veglio, which I hope to do, as much to see to write a letter 
 about as anything. James T. Fields and wife are here, and I 
 have made their acquaintance. She is very pretty and has 
 been more than kind. He tells me he knew dear father, 
 and speaks of the pleasure he had in reading my letters. 
 Learning that I no longer write for the ' Courier ' he said, 
 ' You 're just the person for the " Transcript." Button must 
 have you. Suppose you send him twenty letters for i^iso, 
 and later on you can ask more ? ' I agreed gladly. How 
 good he is. I write twice a month for the ' Picayune ' at 
 ^5.00 a column. Mr. Fields is an inimitable story-teller. 
 They go to Rome to-morrow, as do the Stowes. I like 
 Mrs. Stowe the more I see her. Robert C. Winthrop and 
 family are here. Americans are always the belles of the 
 occasion. Not yet singing, I am obliged to learn self- 
 denial ; not a bad thing for me, as I expect my life to be 
 anything but a bed of roses." 
 
 All through Miss Field's earliest youth there ran 
 this vein of sadness, a kind of prophetic recognition 
 that life for her was to be a ceaseless struggle ; that 
 
lOO Kate Field 
 
 her destiny was " to wrestle and not to reign." Yet 
 who, even of those who hold her in deepest tender- 
 ness, can regret that she never chose inglorious ease, 
 but, rather, the unfaltering pursuit of those ideals 
 toward which the road winds upward all the way? 
 Once in later life she exclaimed with her character- 
 istic impetuosity : " I 've no patience with the selfish 
 women who evade every feeling and emotion. Give 
 me activity and struggle, — -yes, even if it means 
 wrinkles at twenty." 
 
 Mrs. Field's gentle loveliness was instantly recog- 
 nized by Kate's Florentine friends, and Miss Blagden 
 wrote of her in a note to Mrs. Browning comparing 
 Mrs. Field with her daughter as a dove who had 
 hatched an eagle. 
 
 It was in this spring that Miss Frances Power 
 Cobbe came to Florence and took up her abode with 
 Miss Blagden in Villa Bellosguardo. Mrs. Field and 
 Kate had rooms in the city almost opposite the Trol- 
 lopes, and one of their near friends was a gifted young 
 man " to fortune and to fame unknown," whom the 
 world now recognizes with acclaim in that trans- 
 cendent genius, Elihu Vedder. To her Aunt Corda 
 Kate writes, — 
 
 "There is a young American here, Mr. Vedder, very 
 talented and very poor, to whom I do wish somebody 
 would give an order. I have translated a sonnet of 
 Nicolini into blank verse ; very blank, I fear, as it is 
 my first attempt. It is about the Pope and Rome, of 
 course. I 've sent two letters to the 'Transcript ' under the 
 noin de plume of ' Fie.' Do you think it good ? I was at a 
 loss for a name ; mother thought it as good as any. I 
 think you will be delighted with Milan — people so fine — 
 Cathedral so beautiful — La Scala so grand — and Liberty 
 
Florentine Days loi 
 
 so new there. But poor Venice ! It would make my heart 
 ache to visit Venice while the white coats of Austrians 
 hover over her like birds of prey. Last evening we were 
 at Miss Blagden's, — mother and I meeting Miss Cobbe, 
 Hattie Hosmer, Emma Crow, and young Cushman, the 
 great Charlotte's nephew ; and we all laughed immoderately 
 at nothing, as people always do whenever Hattie Hosmer is 
 present. Emma Crow tells me that Mr. Browning paid 
 me a tremendous compliment the night before she left 
 Rome. I was dying to know what, but modesty forbade. 
 Still this much is pleasant to me and may be to you. The 
 Brownings return in May. Miss Cushman does not visit 
 Florence en route to England, so they say. Miss Stebbins 
 is at work upon her Lotus Eater, and has completed a 
 'wonderful' bust of Miss Cushman." 
 
 The last day of May of this i860 was made forever 
 memorable to Kate by her first meeting with George 
 Eliot. To her Aunt Corda Kate writes : — 
 
 " Last night we went to the Trollopes and there met the 
 authoress of ' Adam Bede,' and Mr. Lewes, the Life-of- 
 Goethe man. Miss Evans, or Mrs. Lewes, is a woman 
 whose whole face is of the horse make ; but there is some- 
 thing interesting about her, and you feel impressed with her 
 importance. They say she converses finely, she is very re- 
 tiring — and talked all the evening to Mr. TroUope. I liked 
 Mr. Lewes, who is a very ugly man, but very charming in 
 conversation, so that you forget his looks, and Mr. Chapman, 
 who is a regular good-natured, obstinate John Bull though 
 a young man. I thought to myself, ' Shall I ever have the 
 pleasure of looking upon you in the light of my publisher J ' 
 The Leweses intend to make Florence their home, return- 
 ing here in the autumn. I hear that Dickens is making 
 more money than ever, has provided handsomely for his 
 
I02 Kate Field 
 
 wife, and lives very quietly indeed. It is reported of Mrs. 
 Stowe that, having desired to know Dickens, he gave a 
 large dinner party for her, and received her acceptance. 
 Later the Duchess of Sutherland desired her company and 
 Mrs. Stowe went to her, leaving Dickens out and sending 
 him no apology. She called upon him afterwards and he 
 refused to receive her." 
 
 Under date of June 6 Kate writes : — 
 
 " Miss Cobbe left to-day, to our great sorrow and Miss 
 Blagden's great grief. She is a charming woman, though 
 not so interested in Italy as she should be. In my desire to 
 give her something, and with the limitations of my purse, I 
 bethought myself of the black and yellow Austrian scarf you 
 purchased for me in Rome. I cannot wear the colors of 
 Austria, but Miss Cobbe can, — she feels no compunctions 
 of conscience in this respect, — and she promised to tie it 
 about her neck whenever she preaches unto the ragged 
 schools. I asked her to write me something before leaving, 
 and, behold, she gives me this note : ' Dear Kate, — You 
 have asked me to write something to you. What can I say 
 but that I like you very much ? I believe in you and think 
 you are of the stuff of which realities are made, — if it must 
 be out of Life's hard marble — It is meant to last. Good- 
 bye, etc' A very aggravating parting gift I call this, for I 
 can't get at the meaning, but I suppose if she believes in me 
 I ought to be content. Do you believe in me ? How can any 
 one believe in me ? It would be impossible were I known as 
 I know myself. Miss Cobbe went to see my portrait^ and 
 says there are a great many clever things in it. Vedder has 
 introduced a distant view of Florence with Palazzo and the 
 Duomo. This idea pleases me very much." 
 
 1 This allusion is to the portrait that forms the frontispiece of this 
 volume, the original of which is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. 
 It is very representative of Kate Field in her dawning womanhood. 
 
Florentine Days 103 
 
 Florence itself captivated Kate's imagination. 
 "What traveller has not mused before Dante's 
 stone," she wrote, " and lingered in Palazzo Buona- 
 rotti ? " She welcomed a pleasant opportunity that 
 came to her in being invited by Mrs. Trollope to 
 accompany her on a round of visits to Florentine 
 studios. Mrs. Trollope had contracted to write a 
 series of art papers, and to this end she planned this 
 round. Mrs. Browning was at this time absorbed in 
 writing her " Poems before Congress," which English 
 critics censured while admiring her courage. 
 
 Theodore Parker's death had recently occurred, 
 and of memorial portraits of him we find Kate 
 saying: — 
 
 " I have seen a photograph of Story's bust of Theodore 
 Parker, which I do not like in the least. Young Hart, the 
 sculptor here, is, they say, making a much better likeness of 
 him. Miss Cobbe has a cameo medallion of Parker, and 
 Mr. Trollope one in plaster. The Brownings have returned, 
 looking well and like angels. What think you, dear ? They 
 brought me a beautiful pair of Roman gold sleeve buttons, 
 a copy of ' Poems before Congress,' and photographs of 
 themselves, also a large one taken from Hamilton Wild's 
 pretty painting of Penini on his httle pony. Is this not 
 dear of them ? They have received mother very kindly, 
 and last night we took tea with them in company with Mr. 
 Landor. Mr. Landor, they say, was quite cross until I 
 came. They also say I always put him into a good humor. 
 In going to the table he came up to me and said, ' Now 
 were I a young man, I should offer you my arm.' ' Why 
 cannot you as it is?' I asked. 'With delight, if you will 
 accept it.' And so we marched to the table. In taking 
 our seats, Mr. Chapman came forward to occupy the place 
 next me, whereupon Mr. Landor exclaimed, ' Don't come 
 
I04 Kate Field 
 
 between me and Paradise,' and down he sat. It 's the first 
 time I was ever told I was Elysium Field. Do you take ? 
 Dear Mrs. Browning whispered, ' I hope you appreciate 
 the compliment, Kate.' The old man, speaking of years, 
 said, ' I wish I were dead and buried.' ' Buried or not, 
 Mr. Landor, you will always live,' cried I, very much to 
 his amusement. Miss Blagden and I noticed that his 
 beard was cut. ' Yes, I cut it myself. Ah, willingly would 
 I exchange my hair for yours,' said he to me, mine being 
 curled. ' Most willingly would I exchange the outside on 
 my head for the inside of yours, Mr. Landor,' retorted I, 
 and again he laughed heartily. ' Pray tell me, Mr. Landor, 
 how many times does a man fall in love during his life ? ' 
 ' Well, every time he sees a pretty woman,' and at this 
 witticism he shouted lustily, then resuming, ' Not that I 
 ever was as fickle as that. Oh, no, I never loved but 
 twice. I married to get rid of love, but found this did not 
 answer at all.' Once speaking of women, he said, ' Women 
 are all good. I never knew but two bad women in all my 
 life — ah, stop, stop, — I mean three — I forgot my wife.' " 
 
 About this time these notes reached Kate. 
 
 Siena, August 21, '59. 
 Dear Miss Field, — Thank you heartily for your kind 
 note. I enclose an affecting little poem, — Mr. Lander's 
 last on his domestic misadventures. It seems perfect as far 
 as it goes, but my wife fancied rhymes would have beseemed 
 so short a composition, and I tried my hand accordingly. 
 Between ourselves, I think my arrangement the happier of 
 the two, for the devil's name is legion in this business. 
 Wife, daughter, and son emulating each other in all that 
 entitles people to the horrible epithet, and you will see I 
 take Mrs. L. by the horns. 
 
 Ever yours faithfully, 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 
Florentine Days 105 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — I thank you for your excellent 
 words, and also the vision of your bright, earnest face given 
 in the sight of your handwriting. Do observe that the 
 amnesty full and entire, spoken of in " La foi des traitds," is 
 just given in France. This is the second phase of the 
 Empire, and to be followed by a larger measure of liberal 
 concerns, which confirms and verifies the book, for the 
 writer. Napoleon, walks under as well as on the earth. Now 
 in Italy he is walking under, but walking surely, and we may 
 congratulate one another in hopes again. 
 
 Then for lesser hopes we shall meet on the dear terrace, 
 all alive, I hope, and I also hope you will accompany Miss 
 Blagden, my dear Isa (I can't leave a Miss Blagden so), 
 when she comes to pay us a visit ; it will give us pleasure, 
 dear Miss Field, if you do. 
 
 Yours affectionately ever, 
 
 Elizabeth B. Browning. 
 
 A spark of fire may be struck, but if it fall on 
 nothing inflammable, no result will follovk^. It will 
 simply vanish and leave no trace ; while if it fall on 
 tinder, a conflagration may ensue. Thus, with the 
 effects of opportunities and privileges accorded to 
 the individual whose mind is impervious to them. 
 Practically, they do not exist. Opportunity is, in- 
 deed, as boundless as the atmosphere, and it is con- 
 ditioned chiefly by the degree to which the individual 
 faculties are able to appropriate it. By temperament 
 Kate Field was singularly calculated to enter into the 
 most sympathetic and responsive rapport with this 
 stimulating life. She was the artist born, and she 
 was so endowed with a straightforward honesty, an 
 uncompromising demand for truth and sanity, that a 
 merely meretricious art would not have enthralled 
 her. She would have had no affinities with a passion- 
 
io6 Kate Field 
 
 ate Brompton; she had, even, at this early age, a 
 keen intellectual judgment, and her range of reading 
 had, as we have seen, brought her into close sym- 
 pathy with classic thought and literature. Her lumi- 
 nous blue eyes looked out frankly on life demanding 
 of it that which was sincere, fine in quality, and of 
 the upward trend. With Landor's Hippomenes the 
 young girl might have said : — 
 
 " the Gods have given me strength 
 And confidence ; one name for victory. " 
 
 One June evening Miss Blagden had invited the 
 Brownings and Mr. Landor, together with Mrs. Field 
 and Kate, to tea. The other guests were already 
 present when Mrs. and Miss Field arrived on the 
 entrancing Bellosguardo heights, and as Kate entered 
 she was embraced and kissed by the hostess and by 
 Mrs. Browning. She was radiantly lovely that night, 
 in a pale blue gown, her auburn curls tied with blue 
 ribbons after the fashion of the hour, and a cluster 
 of roses in her belt. As she kissed the ladies Mr. 
 Landor exclaimed, "What, do you intend to stop 
 there?" To the amusement of every one the girl 
 turned to him and kissed him, and he proudly as- 
 serted, with the pardonable exaggeration of chivalry, 
 " This is the happiest day of my life. I know now 
 the advantages of being old, and for the first time. 
 Let me hope it is not the last. Had I been sixty 
 years younger, you would not have kissed me, I am 
 sure." Then he laughed immoderately and compli- 
 mented the girl in Latin phrases. For the lonely old 
 man, with all his classic lore, his elegance of scholar- 
 ship, his infinite intellectual resources, was still very 
 human and very susceptible to the kindness and 
 
Florentine Days 107 
 
 affection which in some moods he affected to despise. 
 Emerson, visiting him in 1843 at his Florentine villa, 
 describes him thus: — ^ 
 
 " I found him noble and courteous, living in a cloud of 
 pictures. ... I had inferred from his books, or magnified 
 from some anecdotes, an impression of Achillean wrath, — 
 an untamable petulance. I do not know whether the impu- 
 tation were just or not, but certainly on this May-day his 
 courtesy veiled that haughty mind, and he was the most 
 patient and gentle of hosts." 
 
 The tea-table that night was a veritable banquet of 
 the gods. The reader will recall when Ixion ban- 
 queted with the gods, he remembered only the pat- 
 tern of the table-cloth. With the girl who had been 
 permitted this privilege there was no failure to ap- 
 preciate the high meaning of this beautiful occasion. 
 Mr. Landor confided to Mrs. Browning as they drove 
 homeward that night down the winding slope of the 
 hills into Florence, lying still and fair under the 
 golden moonlight, that Miss Field was " the most 
 charming young lady he had ever seen." Mrs. 
 Browning told this to the girl the next day, " and 
 you know, dear Kate," she added, " that he has seen 
 a great many." Kate listened to this while a sud- 
 den stillness swept over her, and she replied, " Dear 
 Mrs. Browning, there is something of heaven about 
 him." A night or two later. Miss Blagden dined with 
 Mrs. and Miss Field, and that evening they all passed 
 with the Brownings in Casa Guidi. The atmosphere 
 of sympathetic friendship was very sweet to gentle 
 Mrs. Field, who had already become a favorite in this 
 enchanted Florentine circle. Kate carried with her 
 that night Miss Prescott's ' Granadian Girl's Song.' 
 
io8 Kate Field 
 
 Harriet Prescott — now Mrs. Spofford — was then in 
 the dawning recognition of her fame, and her work 
 was watched with critical interest. Of this ' Song,' 
 which Kate carried that night for the Brownings to 
 see, Mrs. Browning said it was poetry, but not com- 
 parable to Miss Prescott's prose. " So it seems to 
 me," replied Kate; "I am always thirsty for ideas, 
 and I find few in this; but her 'Amber Gods' has 
 the greatest charm, and she has a wealth of imagery. 
 I long to see her write for great ends, great prin- 
 ciples, on subjects where one is not only pleased with 
 beauty of idea, but where the cause of humanity is 
 likewise espoused. She has the beauty of feature 
 and the beauty of flesh in her writings ; but she 
 needs, back of these, the all-conquering power of a 
 great truth to be taught." 
 
 This girlish criticism held its prophetic keynote of 
 Miss Field's own future work. " Art for Art's sake " 
 never seemed to her a complete aim; but art for 
 humanity's sake; art for truth's sake; art, never 
 limited by mere actualities, but uplifting them to the 
 nobler plane of spiritual realities. Nor was she un- 
 appreciative of the brilliant gifts and charm of the 
 writer whom we now know as Harriet Prescott Spof- 
 ford ; she only demanded the highest service for gifts 
 so fine. 
 
 About this time Kate read the new novel of George 
 Eliot's that had recently appeared, and of it she 
 writes : — 
 
 "I have just finished 'The Mill on the Floss,' and am 
 perfectly content with it. It is vastly superior to ' Adam 
 Bade ' in my eyes. The ending has really made me melan- 
 choly. It seems to me there is much in my character like 
 Maggie's, and that I shall have just such a struggling exist- 
 ence, I mean morally and mentally." 
 
Florentine Days 109 
 
 The June days ran on, and these pleasant little 
 reunions of the cercle intime continued almost daily. 
 To Landor Kate went each day for her Latin lesson, 
 and his rugged expression softened, and he became 
 what his pupil called " chivalry incarnate." If he 
 paid her compliments, they were imbedded in the 
 sauce piqiiante of a bon mot. One day he dropped 
 his spectacles, and as she picked them up and handed 
 them to him, he exclaimed, " Oh, this is not the first 
 time that you have caught my eyes." A bit of play- 
 ful verse that he wrote, in reference to the memora- 
 ble night that she kissed him bears the date, in his 
 own hand, of July, i860, and is entitled 
 
 TO KATE FIELD 
 
 Kisses in former times I 've seen, 
 Which, I confess it, raised my spleen ; 
 They were contrived by Love to mock 
 The battledoor and shuttlecock. 
 Given, returned — how strange a play, 
 And both are, even when night sets in. 
 Again as ready to begin. 
 I am not sure I have not played 
 This very game with some fair maid. 
 Perhaps it was a dream ; but this 
 I know was not ; I know a kiss 
 Was given me in the sight of more 
 Than ever saw me kissed before. 
 Modest as winged angels are, 
 And no less brave and no less fair. 
 
 She came across, nor greatly feared 
 The horrid brake of wintry beard. 
 
 Regarding this bit of verse, Mr. Browning thus 
 wrote to Kate : — 
 
no Kate Field 
 
 Siena, Villa Alberti, July i6. 
 Dear Miss Field, — I have only a minute to say that 
 Mr. Landor wrote these really pretty lines in your honor 
 the other day. You remember on what circumstance they 
 turn. I know somebody who is ready to testify to double 
 the extent at the same cost to you, and do his best too. 
 And you also know 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 R. B. 
 Kindest regards from Ba, as well as myself, to Mrs. Field. 
 The servant waits for this, and stops all expansion of soul. 
 
 Italian politics was the absorbing interest of this 
 little group of poets and poet-lovers. Mr. Russell, 
 an English M. P., came to Florence, and was a guest 
 at Casa Guidi. He had much to report of the Eng- 
 lish attitude. Mrs. Browning, writing to Miss Blagden, 
 said : — • 
 
 " You are an angel, dearest Isa, with the tact of a woman 
 of the world. ... I shall agree with you as to Prince Na- 
 poleon if it were not that I want the Emperor's disinterest- 
 edness to remain in its high place. . . . Out of all, I rescue 
 my fact that Napoleon made the English government ac- 
 knowledge the Tuscan vote. Don't let Kate put any of this 
 in the American papers, because Mr. Russell was our guest 
 and spoke trustingly to us. He had just arrived from Eng- 
 land, and went on to Rome without further delay. Our 
 love to Kate, and mind you give our regards to Dr. 
 Gresanowsky." 
 
 This reference of Mrs. Browning's introduces an- 
 other person who became a factor in the life of Mrs. 
 Field and her daughter. 
 
 Dr. Gresanowsky was a Prussian who, for political 
 reasons, had left his country and domiciled himself 
 
Florentine Days 1 1 1 
 
 in Florence, where he became one of the habitues 
 of Casa Guidi. Mrs. Browning frequently had long 
 talks with him as they both sat on Isa Blagden's ter- 
 race on Bellosguardo, and to Kate and her mother 
 this liberal and cultivated Prussian became a valued 
 friend. 
 
 Lander's friendship for the young girl, whom he 
 distinguished by his regard, increased as the days 
 went by. 
 
 " I have always deeply regretted that I never met 
 Shelley," he said to her one day. " It was my own 
 fault, for I was in Pisa the winter he resided there, 
 and was told that Shelley desired to make my ac- 
 quaintance. But I refused to make his, as, at that 
 time, I believed the disgraceful story related of him 
 in connection with his first wife. Years after, when I 
 called upon the second Mrs. Shelley, I repeated to 
 her what I had heard. She assured me that it was 
 a most infamous falsehood." 
 
 Another day he gave Kate the Introduction to his 
 " Gebir " to read, following it, the next day, by a re- 
 vision, which he sent to her with the following note : 
 
 " Again the old creature comes to bother you. The 
 
 enclosed is to take the place of what I wrote yesterday, 
 
 and to cancel, as you will see, what a tolerably good critic " 
 
 (Southey) " thought too good to be thrown away, etc., etc. 
 
 I do not think so, but certainly the beginning of ' Gebir ' is 
 
 better with 
 
 ' Kings ! ye athirst for conquest,' etc. 
 
 You are not athirst for it, but take it coolly." 
 
 Another little note from Landor which Kate treas- 
 ured was this revision of a line in his " Gebir " : — 
 
 " ' Gebir ' should begin thus : — 
 
1 1 2 Kate Field 
 
 ' Hear ye the fate of Gebir ! ' 
 Not 
 
 ' I sing the/aUs of Gebir.' " 
 
 As the summer grew warmer, Kate and her mother 
 left Florence for Leghorn, where they were domiciled 
 in the Casa dell' Ardenza, from which Kate writes to 
 her Aunt Corda vivid transcripts of the days. 
 
 In Leghorn, Kate passed an idyllic summer life, yet 
 one full of ardent work and purpose. To her aunt 
 she writes : " Lincoln elected, and you write of eter- 
 nal ruin. My opinion is just the reverse, — eternal 
 salvation." 
 
 The tendency of youth to proffer advice was not 
 lacking in Kate, and to some remark of her aunt she 
 replies : — 
 
 " It really is dreadful to think of your not thanking God 
 and enjoying the many blessings by which you are sur- 
 rounded. You have health and wealth, and the power to 
 make yourself friends without number, and also the ability 
 to be useful. Interest yourself in things of universal in- 
 terest, — schools or hospitals, or something carried on by 
 women, and which will call forth your energies and sym- 
 pathies. You can do any amount of good, and your love to 
 me is almost as needful as daily bread. Your state of mind 
 grieves me beyond measure." 
 
 Mr. Landor sent to Kate while in this summer re- 
 treat a copy of his " Hellenics," with an autograph 
 inscription not yet faded from the leaf, presenting 
 it to his " amiable and intelligent pupil. Miss Kate 
 Field," and she comments on it to a friend : — 
 
 " Amiable ? I wish I were. Just now I 'm being re- 
 proved for not doing justice to in my last ' Transcript ' 
 
 letter ; but when I think of worthy Mr. Ball in Boston, and 
 
 of unworthy , with his pockets full and his head empty, 
 
 I get indignant." 
 
Florentine Days 1 1 3 
 
 The impetuous, high-souled girl had the defects of 
 herqualities, and, like many another enthusiast, in early- 
 youth she looked on a far from ideal world with the ex- 
 clamation, " That ever I was born to set it right ! " 
 
 There is a tinge of both Hamlet and of Don 
 Quixote in most young persons who have in them 
 the stuff of which character is made. 
 
 Mrs. and Miss Field found in the Casini dell' 
 Ardenza a pleasant group of people, — Count and 
 Countess Rusponi, the Marchesa Romagnoli, and 
 near was the villa of Mademoiselle Talvo, a vivacious 
 French actress. In one of Kate's letters this sketch 
 of their days is given : — 
 
 " Before breakfast we walk a little ; after it comes the 
 mail, that always brings me papers and letters from al- 
 most the four quarters of the globe, which are duly read 
 and digested. Then, perhaps, write a Httle, or perhaps I 
 chat on the steps. At 1 2 m. we bathe ; but I have got 
 tired of bobbing up and down under cover, so in a few days 
 I shall begin to take swimming lessons. I am very curious to 
 know how my courage will deport itself. Perhaps ill, as it 
 always does on great occasions. After bathing we sit all in 
 a pile upon the terrace built out in the sea, and laugh and 
 talk there until 3. At 3 we dine; after dinner, perhaps I 
 write or read or do nothing. At 6 p. m. we make ourselves 
 somewhat decent, and promenade along the ' passeggiata,' 
 as it is called, watching the myriads of carriages from Leg- 
 horn and the surrounding villas containing gayly dressed 
 men and women, — for you must know the Ardenza is the 
 termination of the fashionable drive, — or we walk to Anti- 
 gnano, the charming village a mile beyond." 
 
 There were frequent dances, and there were even- 
 ings when Miss Field was asked to sing; and a beau- 
 
114 Kate Field 
 
 tiful bouquet was one night offered her as a tribute. 
 Of this night she writes : — 
 
 " We have had another concert, at which GiovaccHni 
 Ricci played the viohn most exquisitely. La Talvo sang a 
 romanza from Donizetti very well. There was a scherzo 
 for piano ; Madame dell' Imperatore sang a duet with an 
 officer and ' Mira la bianca luna ' with me, but the latter 
 went badly. I sang ' Ma voce poco fa ' and ' Ah ! fors' e 
 lui.' They seemed to think I sang very well, but I did not 
 think so. Principessa Argirapolo (a Greek girl) played re- 
 markably well on the piano. VVe had among our audience 
 Princess Batellini, first cousin to Napoleon, who is a fine, 
 talented, and noble-looking woman, though immensely 
 stout ; her two daughters, who looked like servant girls ; 
 a Countess who is a second cousin to Napoleon, and who 
 lives near here, and is very pretty : to me, indeed, decidedly 
 distinguee. . . . Since then we have made an excursion to 
 Monte Nero (near here) with a large party. We had a 
 nice breakfast halfway up the mountain and sang lustily. 
 Two balls have taken place this week ; the last was the 
 winding up of the season." 
 
 To another concert Kate thus alludes : — 
 
 " We had been lingering late in the moonlight, and com- 
 ing in a rush was made for the piano. The ' Croce di 
 Savoia ' (written for caro and soprano, dedicated to Picca- 
 lomini, whom I heard sing it last winter) was produced and 
 played through by three good amateurs, two gentlemen and 
 a lady, — two at the piano and the third at a broken-down 
 tin pan formerly a piano. Then the young men sang the 
 choruses ; but such sticking at the solos ! What was to be 
 done ? I mustered courage and exclaimed, ' I '11 sing 
 them ! ' This offer was gladly accepted, and ' Croce ' was 
 bised and bised, and da capoed, da capoed ; and when all 
 was over everybody was very gracious and eternally obliged. 
 
Florentine Days 115 
 
 Every evening we are to practise, and every Sunday we give 
 a concert, when all the visitors of the town assemble. ' Una 
 voce come un campanello — perfettamente intuonata,' and 
 many more such compliments I had. This morning every- 
 body bows, so you see I am on the road to favor. It is per- 
 fectly delightful to sing in the hall, it is so nice and high, the 
 voice rings through it, and I feel very happy at having so good 
 an opportunity to sing. Mrs. Hanan was the prima donna 
 last year, but this year no one has a voice except myself." 
 
 The victories of Garibaldi were thrilling the air, 
 and Kate was in ardent sympathy with the liberty of 
 Italy. A Southern cousin remonstrated with her on 
 some expression in one of her letters to the " New 
 Orleans Picayune," and hoped, as Kate said to a 
 friend, that it " ' did not spring from my own convic- 
 tions, but from the opinions of others.' She little 
 knows me if she thinks I could write contrary to my 
 own convictions," added the girl. 
 
 The idyllic evenings of the dolce far niente days 
 ran on, and a picture of one of these is suggested in 
 this paragraph from a letter of Kate's to her aunt: — 
 
 " Last Monday night twenty-two of us had a grand sup- 
 per at the famous restaurant near Leghorn. The courses 
 consisted of macaroni made with butter and cheese, oys- 
 ters, fried chicken, fruit, and fine ice-cream, champagne, 
 and wine of the country. The table was beautifully deco- 
 rated, and we had a nice time. We sang Brindisi, and at 
 twelve o'clock broke up. We walked home, singing na- 
 tional songs the way along. . . . Miss Cobbe writes me a 
 charming letter," again Kate records, "and says she is very 
 well and very busy, so that her happiness is complete. Miss 
 Blagden writes me that Mrs. Browning is quite overcome 
 by the news of a sister's ill health. Have you read Mrs. 
 Browning's last poem, ' A Musical Instrument,' that ap- 
 peared in the ' Cornhill Magazine'? It is very pretty." 
 
1 1 6 Kate Field 
 
 The August of this summer (i860) was made 
 memorable for Kate Field by her first meeting with 
 Ristori, the great Italian tragedienne, whose friend- 
 ship was destined to enter as a controlling force and 
 influence all her future. Of the first sight of the 
 great artist, she says : — 
 
 " We have seen Ristori in Judith, Mirra, Medea, and in 
 farce. Our delight is intense • a more fascinating creature 
 I never saw, and her comedy is as fine as her tragedy. You 
 could not have seen her to advantage, for I prefer her to 
 Rachel. She is more melodramatic, I grant, but she has 
 greater passion ; her love is real love. Rachel was not so 
 superb in the softer passions, nor had she the beautiful 
 figure and lovely face of Ristori. A more mobile expression 
 I never saw ; her blue eye looks any color to suit the feel- 
 ing of the moment, and when she smiles, disclosing pearly 
 teeth, she is angelic. I am transported with her, and re- 
 gret that we are not able to see her again. What a glorious 
 effect would be produced with Ristori and Salvini in the 
 same tragedy ! We have no actors in America ; we have no 
 criticism. Italy produces both spontaneously ; but a bad 
 Italian actor is the most atrocious conception on earth. 
 Ristori looks more like an American than an Italian, — she 
 is so exceedingly fair and feminine off the stage. I hope 
 Edwin Booth will study the French and Italian schools of 
 acting, and will remember to be natural. Give my love to 
 Miss Cushman when you see her next, and tell her that I 
 sympathize in her admiration for beautiful, good Ristori." 
 
 The meeting with the great actress, Adelaide Ris- 
 tori, who in private life was the Marchesa del Grillo, 
 was the unconscious initiation of Kate Field into a 
 line of work that she was destined to make brilliantly 
 effective, — that of dramatic criticism. To her this 
 
Florentine Days 1 1 7 
 
 branch of literary art was of the highest importance. 
 " A dramatic critic should believe as firmly in the 
 nobility of his calling as the clergyman believes in 
 the sacredness of his pulpit," she said. " If acting is 
 an art, — and the greatest minds have placed it high 
 among the fine arts, — if the stage has such tremen- 
 dous power for good or evil, surely a critic should 
 hold himself aloof from every influence that is likely 
 to trammel his judgment." 
 
 To follow in retrospective completeness a strong 
 individuality through the period of time passed on 
 earth is to become dimly aware of the rhythmic 
 nature of life : the symphonic nature, indeed, one 
 might almost say. For in this life, here, as in a great 
 symphony, one will find a motive introduced in the 
 first movement recurring again and again each time, 
 with different combinations, but still recognizable in 
 its identity. So do the presence and influences of 
 certain persons recur and reappear in a given lifetime. 
 They appear at intervals, like characters in a play ; 
 they come and they go, but are always liable to 
 re-enter into that personal drama in which they are 
 evidently among the appointed actors. " We meet — 
 at least those who are true to their instincts meet — a 
 succession of persons through their lives, all of whom 
 have some peculiar errand to us," said Margaret 
 Fuller. " There is another circle whose existence 
 we perceive, but with whom we stand in no real 
 relation. . . . Another circle is within this, one near 
 and dear to us. . . . But yet a nearer group there 
 are, beings born under the same star and bound 
 with us in a common destiny. These are not mere 
 acquaintances, mere friends, but are sharers of our 
 very existence. The times of these meetings are 
 
1 1 8 Kate Field 
 
 fated, nor will either one ever be able to meet any 
 other person in the same way." 
 
 It was thus that Ristori entered into the life of 
 Kate Field. The sum of that Italian summer by the 
 blue sea — the residuum that remained for Kate — 
 was this forging of the link that bound her to 
 Madame Ristori. The problem of fate is an intricate 
 question ; still, life is not made up of blind chance 
 nor of automatic movements. Every outer event 
 has its inner cause. 
 
 The dramatic personality of Madame Ristori made 
 on Kate an impression that kindled her imagination 
 and colored all her future life. It was the source of 
 her distinctive and important contribution to the lit- 
 erature of dramatic criticism which found its fruition 
 in such papers as her monograph on " Adelaide Ris- 
 tori ; " her series of three papers on " The Hamlets 
 of the Stage ; " a monograph, biographical and criti- 
 cal, on " Charles Albert Fechter," and others entitled, 
 "A Conversation on the Stage," "Fechter as Hamlet," 
 and " Ristori as Marie Antoinette." All of these, 
 with the single exception of the latter, were published 
 in the "Atlantic Monthly," and in the same magazine 
 appeared Miss Field's " Last Days of Walter Savage 
 Landor," running through three numbers; her pa- 
 per on " Elizabeth Barrett Browning," and the delight- 
 ful transcription of Florentine days called "English 
 Authors in Florence." This group of a dozen papers 
 all appeared between September of 1861 and Decem- 
 ber of 1870. In the paper on Adelaide Ristori Miss 
 Field thus contrasted her with Rachel : — 
 
 "There is no common ground upon which Rachel and 
 Ristori can meet. Their conceptions of Phfedre may be 
 compared, but not their genius. Ristori makes a tour de 
 
Florentine Days 119 
 
 force of what with Rachel was bone of her bone and flesh 
 of her flesh. She is noble in it ; her reading is beautiful, 
 as it ever is; and some of her points, particularly in the 
 fourth act, are fine ; but we do not feel a character. Ris- 
 tori's large humanity speaks through it all, and we heartily 
 wish that ' Phedre ' had never been translated. Rachel was 
 fifteen years in mastering the idea of this wretched daughter 
 of the monster Pasiphae. How useless, then, to look for 
 an equal work of art from a foreigner, with whom the part 
 is a comparatively recent assumption ! Independently of 
 predestined genius, Rachel's figure eminently fitted her 
 for the rendering of Greek tragedy. Drapery hung upon 
 her as it hangs upon no other human being, her very phy- 
 sical defects making her the more exquisitely statuesque. 
 Rachel's effects depended greatly upon her poses, — her 
 poses depended upon her drapery, the management of 
 which had been one of her profoundest studies. She 
 knew the secrets of every crease in her mantle. Every 
 movement was the result of thoughtful premeditation. A 
 distinguished painter once said to us : 'I never studied 
 my art more carefully than I studied Rachel. I watched 
 her before and behind the curtain, and so narrowly, that, 
 while one action was going on, I could see her fingers 
 quietly, and to all appearances unconsciously, making the 
 folds by which she shortly after produced a beautiful effect 
 in what the public considered a spontaneous pose.' This 
 is plastic art, and Rachel was mistress of it. Of course, 
 Ristori has little or none of it in 'Phfedre.' Impulse is death 
 to it, and no amount of pictorial genius will produce re- 
 sults for which years of practice, as well as of thought, are 
 required." 
 
 In her "Conversation on the Stage," Miss Field 
 struck the keynote of the dramatic dialogue which 
 she afterward used so effectively in producing her 
 comediettas. After the fashion of Landor's " Imagi- 
 
1 20 Kate Field 
 
 nary Conversations " and Mr. Story's pleasant " Con- 
 versations in a Studio," Kate expresses her own specu- 
 lative views and observations in the discussion of two 
 characters whom she calls Vif Esprit and Sang-froid. 
 The influence of Landor stimulated Kate's literary 
 inclinations as that of Ristori did her dramatic tastes. 
 Charles Caryll Coleman had painted for her a study 
 of Landor's head, which, as the last portrait ever 
 painted of him, has an enduring interest. Kate in- 
 troduced the subject to Mr. Landor, and she after- 
 ward related the conversation as follows : — 
 
 " ' Mr. Landor, do you remember the young artist who 
 called on you one day?' 
 
 " ' Yes, and a nice fellow he seemed to be.' 
 
 " ' He was greatly taken with your head.' 
 
 " (Humorously) — 'You are quite sure he was not smit- 
 ten with my face ? ' 
 
 " ' No, I am not sure, for he expressed himself enthusias- 
 tically about your beard. He says you are a fine subject for 
 a study.' 
 
 " No answer. 
 
 " ' Would you allow him to make a sketch of you, Mr. 
 Landor? He is exceedingly anxious to do so.' 
 
 " ' No. I do not wish my face to be public property. I 
 detest this publicity that men nowadays seem to be so fond 
 of. There is a painting of me in England. I have been 
 urged to allow my portrait to be inserted in my books, but 
 never would I give my consent.' (Notwithstanding this 
 assertion, it may be found in the 'Lost Fruit.') 'It is a 
 custom that I detest.' 
 
 " ' But, Mr. Landor, you had your photograph taken 
 lately.' 
 
 " ' That was to oblige my good friend. Browning, who has 
 been so exceedingly kind and attentive to me. I could not 
 refuse him.' 
 
Florentine Days 121 
 
 But, Mr. Landor, this is entirely between ourselves. 
 It does not concern the public in the least. My friend 
 wants to make a study of your head, and I want the study.' 
 
 " ' Oh, the painting is for you, is it? ' 
 
 Yes. I want to have something of you in oil colors.' 
 
 " ' Ah, to be sure ! The old creature's complexion is so 
 fresh and fair. Well, I '11 tell you what I will do. Your 
 friend may come, provided you come with him — and act 
 as chaperone ! ' This was said laughingly. 
 
 " 'That I will do with pleasure.' " 
 
 The nobility of Landor's head is admirably depicted 
 in this portrait. 
 
 October found Mrs. and Miss Field again in Flor- 
 ence in the Piazza Pitti opposite the Pitti Palace and 
 very near Casa Guidi. Kate's health was improving 
 slowly, but she had then, as all through her life, a del- 
 icate physique, upheld by a steel-like nervous force. 
 " I don't know what it is to be free from — not ex- 
 actly pain, but uncomfortableness," she writes ; and 
 the cause is not far to seek in the conjunction of an 
 originally delicate constitution and the pervading 
 order of un-hygienic living of those days. " I am not 
 unhappy about myself, however," she wrote, " but 
 about Garibaldi ! His declaration that the two 
 Sicilies shall not be annexed to Piedmont until he 
 has marched through Rome sounds like a hot-headed 
 boy. The sooner Italy is consolidated, the better will 
 be her position with other Powers. . . ." The letter 
 runs on : — 
 
 " I 've finished the first two volumes of Gibbon, and am 
 quite fascinated with him. I am beginning to wake up to 
 a sense of my enormous ignorance, and perhaps if I live I 
 may know something in the course of a few years. After 
 
12 2 Kate Field 
 
 all, considering that I could not do anything in July and 
 August, my time has not been entirely thrown away, for 
 besides carrying on a large private correspondence I have 
 read ' Aurora Leigh,' ' Men and Women,' ' Bacon's Essays,' 
 'Transformation,' 'Tom Brown's School Days,' 'Three 
 Clerks,' ' The Bertrams,' ' Scenes in Clerical Life,' ' Id^es 
 Napol^oniennes,' and the two volumes of Gibbon's, be- 
 sides dipping into various other books, reading Italian news- 
 papers, writing twelve letters to 'Picayune,' that account of 
 watering-place life that I sent you, and thirty pages of a 
 something at which I am now experimenting. I know this 
 is nothing, but it is an improvement on the Kate Field of 
 old. Three months of last year commencing to-day I did 
 nothing except lie on a sofa and be miserable." 
 
 Dr. Gresanowsky had become a warm friend of 
 Miss Field, and it was he who secured their apart- 
 ment in the Piazza Pitti. The prices in Florence then 
 were not high ; several well-furnished rooms on the 
 first piano were but twenty-two dollars a month, and 
 two flights higher were four dollars less. But stairs 
 were a serious consideration. His letters playfully 
 recount the details of apartment-finding, and in one 
 the learned Doctor writes : — 
 
 " I think it is high time for you now to come back to 
 Florence, as the sea water seems to have a very exciting 
 effect upon you. Such a mania for Ristori, as if she were a 
 solid angel. Oh, womankind ! Oh, youth ! And what do 
 you say of Garibaldi ? And what of King Victor's war pro- 
 clamation? Miss Blagden has wrapped herself in complete 
 silence." 
 
 Finally in November Mrs. and Miss Field changed 
 their abode for a first floor opposite the Trollopes in 
 the Piazza Independenza. 
 
Florentine Days 123 
 
 "We are to furnish the rooms ourselves," Kate writes, 
 " the Trollopes kindly volunteering to lend us some furni- 
 ture to start with, and it is by far the most economical way 
 to live in Florence. The furniture soon pays for itself and 
 the remarkable decrease in the rent for unfurnished apart- 
 ments is a consideration. Our situation, so near the dear 
 Trollopes, will be a great comfort to us, and the Piazza is 
 by far the healthiest locality in the city." 
 
 In these autumn days Kate began her study in 
 music and Italian with renewed zeal. Her health 
 was much better, and the gentle mother's companion- 
 ship and care were her best safeguards. Florence 
 was thronged with Americans that year, but the little 
 circle of the Brownings, Trollopes, Dr. Gresanowsky, 
 Mr. Lander, Miss Blagden, and Mrs. and Miss Field 
 held their intimacy rather apart. To her Aunt Corda 
 Kate writes : — 
 
 " Anthony Trollope is a very delightful companion. I 
 see a great deal of him. He has promised to send me a 
 copy of the ' Arabian Nights ' (which I have never read) in 
 which he intends to write ' Kate Field, from the Author,' 
 and to write me a four-page letter on condition that I 
 answer it. The Brownings returned day before yesterday. 
 I sent her a bouquet yesterday and intend calling to-day." 
 
 The Christmas of i860 dawned in Florence in a 
 cold driving rain. Kate and her mother dined with 
 the Trollopes, Miss Blagden and Dr. Gresanowsky 
 being of the party, and she records among her gifts 
 an album from Miss Blagden, and a picture — "a 
 perfect gem" — from Mr. Vedder. 
 
 " I made only two gifts," she writes, — " one to Beatrice 
 Trollope and a camellia to Mr. Landor. The old man made 
 
124 Kate Field 
 
 us a visit the next day and presented me with the only copy 
 he possesses of his works, in two large volumes. They are 
 filled with his corrections and doubly valuable on this 
 account. Was it not kind of the poor old man? A few 
 days previous he sent us some very fine grapes. The world 
 may say what it pleases of Mr. Landor. I cannot but feel 
 a sympathy for him, and certainly his errors have fallen 
 most heavily on himself." 
 
 The New Year of '6i was inaugurated by a grand 
 ball given in the Palazzo Vecchio by Signor Recasdi. 
 A magnificent suite of rooms was thrown open and 
 the scene was a brilliant one. Miss Field, with whom 
 dancing was a passion, appeared for a little while in a 
 white tulle ball gown garnitured with silver lilies, 
 but the still delicate state of her health did not admit 
 of long indulgence in festivities. A young American 
 artist, Mr. Greene, left Florence about this time and 
 made a parting gift to Miss Field of a sketch which 
 she thus describes : — 
 
 " It is a moonlight scene ; the stars are out, and a meteor 
 tracks the heavens. A troubadour with guitar in hand is 
 serenading his lady-love, who is listening at an open win- 
 dow. The house and figures are in shadow, and fire-flies 
 glow in the dark. The frame is very appropriate, and on 
 the top are carved two bars of music from the serenade in 
 ' Trovatore,' ' non ti scordar di me.' Is not the idea in- 
 genious? Greene is a fine fellow and deserves success. 
 His crayon of me excited universal commendation. I send 
 you a photograph of it that does not of course do the crayon 
 justice. Green took a sketch of Beatrice Trollope also that 
 he presented to her mother. It is an admirable likeness, 
 and Mrs. Trollope is delighted with it. There still remain 
 three young artists, Baldwin, Coleman, and Oliver Lay, all 
 three New Yorkers. Mr. Baldwin will never be an artist, but 
 
Florentine Days 125 
 
 he is a noble character and very well educated. His father 
 is very wealthy. Coleman is poor and has great feeling for 
 art, — he is very clever in landscapes. Oliver is one of the 
 handsomest and most charming young fellows that I have 
 ever met. He is remarkably mature for his years, is well 
 educated, talks well, argues with originality, is well read, and 
 very imaginative. He has the most wonderful and yet 
 practical dreams that he relates with glistening eyes and 
 in romantic language. They are almost always allegorical. 
 Oliver reads exceedingly well. What he will do in art I 
 can't say, as I have seen nothing that he has done, nor have 
 any of the students ; besides, he is a beginner. He is going 
 to Paris to study very shortly. All I know is that he is a 
 singularly interesting boy, and when you see or write to 
 Aunt Charlotte, .please tell her the same, that it may be 
 repeated to his mother. He has dined once with us and 
 drops in every now and then. The Trollopes, through me, 
 have invited him to their house, but he has not gone yet. 
 He is eminently calculated to take care of himself. His 
 mother need have no fears for him." 
 
 Under date of March 31 of this year, Kate writes 
 to her aunt: — 
 
 " Is it really true that Miss Prescott is engaged to Mr. 
 SpofFord? . . . Well, I've read 'Sir Rohan's Ghost' and 
 am disappointed. I don't think it nearly as good as her 
 stories in the 'Atlantic' There is an entire want of ana- 
 tomical knowledge, if .1 may so speak. She has a great 
 deal of gorgeous coloring, showing that she possesses to a 
 great extent the first requisite of a writer, imagination, but 
 character-drawing so far she utterly fails in. Then there is 
 an effort and straining at saying clever things in the dialogue 
 which shows she makes her people talk with difficulty. This 
 criticism of ' Sir Rohan ' does not take away from my firm 
 belief in her talent, and if she only has the proper advisers 
 
126 Kate Field 
 
 I doubt not a few years will cure her of her faults. The 
 misfortune in America to a young author is that the general 
 tone of conversation is slangy and that the least promise of 
 talent calls forth enthusiastic praise unadulterated with that 
 sound criticism so necessary to stifle self-conceit and pro- 
 mote the improvement of the writer. I do hope Miss 
 Prescott will not be spoiled. If she could only come to 
 Florence she would be on the road to salvation. Her tech- 
 nical knowledge of different subjects is perfectly wonderful, 
 and foreign travel would open to her a mine of thought. . . . 
 Miss Blagden's book has arrived, but I have not seen it yet. 
 She is a good creature as ever was. Lady Ashburton got 
 down on her knees to Hattie Hosmer the other day, and 
 gave her a magnificent ring, a ruby heart surrounded with 
 diamonds. Why she went on her knees is a mystery. Is 
 not Hattie lucky? She is fortunate in everything. Is it 
 true that Miss Cushman is to pass the summer in Florence ? 
 I hope so." 
 
 The Brownings go for a little visit to Rome, and Mr. 
 Browning thus writes to Kate: — 
 
 Rome, Via del Tritone, 28, March 29, '60. 
 Dear Miss Field, — Do you really care to have the 
 little photograph ? Here it is with all my heart. I wonder 
 I dare be so frank this morning, however, for a note just 
 received from Isa mentions an instance of your acuteness 
 that strikes me with a certain awe. " Kate," she says, 
 " persists that the ' Curse for a Nation ' is for America 
 and not England." You persist, do you? No doubt 
 against the combined intelligence of our friends, who show 
 such hunger and thirst for a new poem of " Ba's," and when 
 they get it digest the same as you see. Write a nation's 
 curse for me, quote the antislavery society five years ago, 
 and send it over the Western seas. " Not so," replied poor 
 little Ba, " for with my heart sore for my own land's sins, 
 
Florentine Days 127 
 
 which are thus and thus, what curse can be assigned to 
 another land when heavy sins are mine?" "Write it for 
 that very reason," rejoined Ba's botherer, "because thou liast 
 strength to see and hate a foul thing done within thy gate," 
 and so after a little more silly rallying and shilly-shallying 
 she wrote and sent over the western sea what all may read, 
 but it appears only Kate Field out of all Florence can 
 understand. It seems incredible. How did you find out? 
 Besides the meaning of all these puzzling phrases, which I 
 quote in the exact words of the poem, that the people who 
 have broken their own chain and climbed a nation's height 
 yet thence bear down with brand and thong on souls of 
 others, are not precisely the English, but those who have a 
 claim to honor in the Old World's sight are likely to live in 
 the New World. In short, you are not only the delightful 
 Kate Field, which I always knew you to be, but the per- 
 spicuous creature to whom I am suddenly found bowing 
 down before you as the sole understander of Ba in all 
 Florence. Kate persists, etc. I can't get over it. 
 
 To be sure, the Athenaeum pretended to make the same 
 blunder for a private pique, but then it had the instinct 
 of its kind, the crawlers, and took care to leave out of its 
 quotations every word of the explanatory prologue I have 
 been laying under contribution. But I thought the friends 
 you " persist " against would read in plain English, and 
 were inclined to pay a moderate attention to that of the 
 divine Mrs. Browning. They precipitated themselves upon 
 this excruciatingly expected work. They read, marked, 
 and thoroughly digested those precious words above cited. 
 They devoutly thanked God they were not called to discuss 
 any of the unintelligible Browning, the husbands stick Jew 
 jordellian stir about, and they came to a conclusion which 
 Kate Field persists against. Browning, the husband, means 
 to try increasingly and grow somewhat intelligible to all of 
 his intimates at Florence, with the sole exception of Kate 
 
128 Kate Field 
 
 Field, to whose comprehension he will rather endeavor to 
 rise than to stoop henceforth ; and so, with true love from 
 Ba to Kate Field, and our united explanations to all other 
 friends, that the subject-matter of the present letter is by 
 no means the annexation of Lombardy and Nice, she will 
 
 believe me, 
 
 Hers very faithfully, R. B. 
 
 Mrs. Browning also writes : — 
 
 Rome, Tuesday. 
 
 Indeed, my ever dear, kind Kate, you gave me a great 
 fright with the first page of your letter, but from writing 
 herself to you as a shade better, I take heart again and 
 trust it may simply be an attack of grippe. Isa catches 
 cold easily. I am glad she has . . . and do hope that you 
 will be ministering angel enough to let me have a word 
 before I leave Rome. Only if it is n't done spontaneously, 
 don't write because I say this. We shall be gone before a 
 letter of yours could arrive here. We go on Saturday, 
 creeping along the road by Siena, and expecting earth- 
 quakes and banditti as travelling companions. Would that 
 we could hold some magic in our hand which by thinking 
 of a party we hear where you are. At Rome it is very hot 
 and oppressive. In fact, we have overstayed our time. 
 The winter has been mild, and I have had repose for the 
 most part. Now the necessity for effort which comes with 
 the summer frightens me, yet I am better and stronger in 
 body and soul. 
 
 My dear Kate, never say that I have cursed your coun- 
 try. I only declared the consequences of the evil in her, 
 and which has since developed itself in thunder and flame. 
 I feel with more pain than many Americans do the sorrow 
 of her transition time ; but I do know that it is transition ; it 
 is crisis, and you will come out of the fire, purified, stainless, 
 having had the angel of a great cause walking with you in 
 the furnace. As to England, a late article in the " Post " 
 
Florentine Days 129 
 
 has quieted the worst of my fears, and, in fact, the govern- 
 ment could scarcely cover itself with apologies up to a 
 certain point. 
 
 It has been bad enough, what we have read in the 
 "Times " and elsewhere, of ignoble selfishness on this sub- 
 ject, and listened to Lord Brougham, but we may trust 
 England as under her present political regime for being 
 consistently interested as far as she can and dares. Why 
 blame her? Is it not proved that the Boers murdered them- 
 selves, and that the lonians would but for her tender care, 
 and that the Suez canal is impossible because France and 
 the Nation might get some good by it? Why talk any 
 more after these things are evident ? For me, I have done 
 talking, I only groan. Have mercy upon us, miserable sin- 
 ners, is my form of the National Anthem. So, Kate, you 
 are learning Latin and communing with W. S. Landor, and 
 he feels, as we all do, that you are clever, dear, and good, 
 and that the more we have of you, the better. Give my 
 love to . . . Oh, our photographs, how hke you, and how 
 glad we were of your words ! And now good-bye till we 
 meet next week. 
 
 Very affectionately yours, 
 
 E. B. B. 
 
 My husband sends his love. He may. 
 
 In reply to the urgency of her aunt, Mrs. Sanford, 
 that Mrs. and Miss Field return to America, Kate 
 writes : — 
 
 "There are all good reasons for returning home, but 
 there are still more powerful ones for remaining here. I 
 assure you we have not the money to live out of Italy. 
 Here we can exist comfortably within our income, which 
 were it tripled would not insure us a respectable living in 
 America. Were I strong and healthy, and could submit to 
 many inconveniences fighting my own way, it would be 
 different; but I am equal to nothing of the kind, — the 
 
 9 
 
1 30 Kate Field 
 
 greater part of my time is passed in an easy-chair. Dis- 
 tances are so great in New York that I never could walk ; 
 and where I pay a dime here for conveyance, I should pay 
 a dollar in America. No, dear ; much as I wish to see you, 
 whom I miss more and more as I grow older, much as I 
 wish to have mother surrounded with her own particular 
 interests and family, we cannot leave Italy." 
 
 Patriotism was a passion with Kate Field ; and 
 most characteristic of her is this expression, written 
 to her Aunt Corda, under date of June 21, 1861 : 
 
 " You speak of ' feeling apathetic' Is it possible that 
 any American in times like these can dream of such a 
 thing? You must be ill, or you would be more alive than 
 you ever were before, — invigorated, strengthened, by the 
 grand attitude which America has taken before the world. 
 ' Un grand peuple se relive,' to use the title of M. Gasparin's 
 good work upon America. The one thing that makes me 
 happy in my far-off exile is the patriotic pride which posi- 
 tively makes me glow with satisfaction. Our house is very 
 hot, our money is almost oozed out, our doubts about rein- 
 forcements are great, our sanitary state is none of the best, 
 yet we joy on, content ; and if we must starve to save the 
 Union, then let us starve. What are individuals in com- 
 parison with the nation's welfare? And you, who are so 
 fortunate as to be a witness to the American regeneration, 
 feel apathetic ! Go, armed with the thimble, needle, and 
 thread, and offer your services at the Evans House where 
 the Sanitary Commission is toiling. Quicken your blood by 
 pricking your fingers in the making of drawers and shirts, 
 or even work at home. Without an object in life, no one 
 can be happy; and there are so many calls made upon 
 philanthropy, that no one can say there is no opportunity of 
 being of use. It is my only salvation that I can find food 
 in the politics of the world ; they fill up the vacuum that 
 
Florentine Days 1 3 1 
 
 otherwise would yawn for want of friends and activity. On 
 my couch, with no visitor hardly from one week's end to 
 another, I find enough to do to be interested in, and time 
 flies so rapidly that I am terrified at the wicked manner in 
 which I let slip my opportunities. Yet I am not absolutely 
 idle. You want to know what will be the end of this war. 
 I don't think we have any right to look into the future. 
 What we do know is that the Union has been betrayed, gov- 
 ernment property stolen, and the flag disgraced. What we 
 know is that traitors should be punished, property recap- 
 tured, and the national flag rescued from dishonor. These 
 three things we know ; these three things are right ; these 
 three things therefore must be done. What will be the con- 
 sequences? The consequences of right axe good." 
 
 Kate's patriotism, indeed, cost her what most girls 
 would have held to be too great a price. Her uncle, 
 who was then a millionaire and childless, had an- 
 nounced his settled purpose to make her his heiress. 
 But his sympathies were conservative. He had not 
 the breadth of mind to welcome sacrifice, loss, or 
 ruin if it meant the triumph of principle: ; and Kate's 
 spirited espousal of the radical side of the war in her 
 press letters, brought upon her his censure and his 
 command to cease. She, however, had the courage 
 that could hold fast to a forlorn hope and assert, 
 " One with God is a majority." He reversed his deci- 
 sion ; and the girl who had been encouraged to feel 
 that the ways and means of life were provided, was 
 thus left — in ill health, in a foreign land, a girl of 
 twenty-one — to face the future as best she might, 
 and provide for her mother and herself. Yet was 
 she steadfast and magnanimous always. Her spirit 
 is revealed in this passage from a letter to her aunt 
 about this time : — 
 
132 Kate Field 
 
 " You are good enough to say that if we are in need of 
 the necessaire you will accommodate us ; but you forget 
 that your money is in reality Uncle Milton's ; and you for- 
 get that he would not respect me, nor I respect myself, 
 did I become still more indebted to him when his feelings 
 -towards me are as they are. Put yourself in my position 
 and ask yourself if I am not right. Were we able to live 
 independently of you in America, and there was a hope of 
 my being able to refund the sum advanced, the inducements 
 to return home would be so great that your proposition 
 would be accepted ; but there is no such hope, I am sorry 
 ■to say. You know that my feeling towards Uncle Milton 
 has ever remained the same." 
 
 These family matters are not literary material, and 
 this reference is only made as it involves a fact bear- 
 ing on Miss Field's life. Mr. Sanford, although con- 
 servative and devoid of the heroic nature, was a man 
 with many admirable qualities; and the development 
 of the future of his gifted niece was nobler and greater 
 in that she was left without his inheritance. 
 
 Gf Landor at this time she writes : — 
 
 "Mr. Landor comes to see me every day, bringing me 
 flowers, books, etc. ; and although I have the very highest 
 respect for his intellect and derive advantage from his visits, 
 yet I do grudge passing every morning to such compara- 
 tively small profit. I console myself by thinking that I am 
 pleasing an old man, and therefore making myself useful. 
 He sent me yesterday all the manuscript scraps in his pos- 
 session, which I am to edit and publish after his death. 
 What will Mr. Forster's biography say to this? I endeav- 
 ored to persuade him otherwise ; but he insisted, and I was 
 obhged to accept them in self-defence. Mr. Landor's praise 
 of me is too extravagant and absurd to mention. Let us 
 hope that I may never offend him, and thereby become 
 
Florentine Days 133 
 
 quite as black as I am now white, as is the case with his 
 attached friend Forster. But, Aunt Corda, Mr. Landor is 
 a great man, the cleverest mind I have ever encountered, 
 as well as being the most wayward, — wayward in temper 
 and fancies. There is much good in him. His latest 
 donations to me are a Virgil, a fine Latin dictionary, and 
 Aubrey de Vere's poems, that I fancy greatly." 
 
 As the summer again came on, it became evident 
 that there was little improvement in Kate's health, 
 and she began to look, not hopelessly, but certainly 
 with serious questioning, at the future. She loved 
 the dreamy air and the poetry of the golden sunsets 
 as seen from Villa Brichieri, where Miss Blagden dwelt 
 on Bellosguardo ; but a haunting fear that she was 
 doomed to invalidism recurred to her and would not 
 be silenced. She was learning, too, that between the 
 two arts that beckoned her with almost equal attrac- 
 tion, Literature was more her own than Music. 
 
 With her artistic temperament there was another 
 that responded to affairs ; to activities and to a certain 
 universality of interests to which the artist par excel- 
 lence must sometimes close his eyes. As the poet 
 
 says : — 
 
 " Who loves the music of the spheres, 
 And lives on earth, must close his ears 
 To many voices that he hears." 
 
 That Kate loved the music of the spheres there was 
 no question ; but neither at this time nor increasingly 
 in her after life, could she ever succeed in closing her 
 ears to the many voices. While the art-life is en- 
 riched by all possible breadth and extension of inter- 
 ests, .there is yet in it a demand for a degree of 
 absolute concentration ; and the nature of Kate Field 
 was one that responded in too many directions to 
 
1 34 Kate Field 
 
 ever permit her to centre her forces on a single line. 
 In her after hfe this fact was sometimes regretted by 
 her friends ; but when the period of years passed in 
 this world is regarded in its true light as the prepara- 
 tory and experimental stage out of which a more 
 positive and definite life of achievement is to be 
 evolved, it can hardly be other than encouraging to 
 see a nature keenly responsive to progress in more 
 directions than one. Kate's girlish ambition for the 
 lyric stage was, at this period, modified, and she said : 
 " If only I had strong health and no disposition to 
 write, I could give myself to lyric art unreservedly; 
 as it is, I feel that writing is my only hope." 
 
 If heredity is a force with which we must reckon, 
 this complication of the girl's inclinations and gifts is 
 not strange when the mixed conditions of the drama, 
 of literary work, and of practical and executive mat- 
 ters that filled the life of both her parents and the an- 
 cestry back of them, are remembered. Her father's 
 versatility was to her an inheritance. 
 
 The June of i86l found Mrs. Browning's strength 
 failing, although, until the last day of her life, she 
 did not consider herself sufficiently ill to remain 
 in bed. On the last evening of her life she read the 
 " Athenaeum " and the " Nazione," and when her little 
 son kissed her good-night she smiled and said : " I 
 am better, dear, much better." Her death brought 
 to Kate a loss that made upon her an impression 
 never to be effaced. In two letters to her Aunt 
 Corda, dated June 29, 1861, she thus tells the touch- 
 ing story : — 
 
 Florence, June 29, 1861. 
 
 Darling, — I am sick, sick at heart, for dear Mrs. Brown- 
 ing is dead. The news was as sudden as it is dreadful, for 
 
Florentine Days 135 
 
 though she has been quite ill for a week past, yet her health 
 has always been so feeble that I firmly believed she would 
 rally as of yore. I believed that God had more work for 
 her on earth before he called her to fill a glorious place in 
 Heaven. During her illness I have not seen her once, as 
 she was unable to converse, but I went every day, and 
 always the report has been more encouraging. Two days 
 ago we saw Mr. Browning, and he like myself deceived him- 
 self by founding hopes upon her powers of endurance. Yes- 
 terday Mrs. Browning said that she felt better, read a little 
 in the "Athenaeum" and saw Miss Blagden as late as eight 
 o'clock in the evening, who left her with but little misgiving. 
 This morning, at half-past four, she expired unconsciously 
 to herself with the words, '•' It is beautiful," upon her lips. 
 Poor Mr. Browning was entirely unprepared for the terrible 
 blow. When she raised herself to pronounce her dying 
 words wherein she expressed the glorious life which was 
 opening upon her, he thought it was simply a movement 
 premonitory to coughing. I have not seen him, but Miss 
 Blagden, who is constantly with him, says he is completely 
 prostrated with grief. The poor boy wanders about the 
 house, sad and disconsolate, hardly realizing that his angel 
 mother is no more. We went to the house the moment we 
 heard of Mrs. Browning's death, but could be of no use. 
 All that we did was to buy flowers and consecrate them by 
 placing them around all that is left of one who was too pure 
 to remain longer in this world. They have cut off all her 
 hair, and the emaciated form was heart-rending to look 
 upon. I almost regret that I have seen her in death, only 
 that I do not wish to shun the house of mourning. I am 
 sufficiently callous as it is. Her last act to me was one of 
 kindness, insisting upon our going up to Villa Brichieri with 
 Mr. Browning in a carriage. Almost the last thing that I 
 did in her presence was to kneel before her, and say that 
 when near her, I always longed to be at her feet — and she 
 
136 Kate Field 
 
 was so gentle and kind, so loving and unassuming. Her 
 character was as perfect as God permits in the flesh. What 
 Mr. Browning will do, I don't know. His nature is so 
 excitable that at first I fear the consequences ; that in the 
 end this terrible loss will chasten and perfect him, I trust 
 and pray. He who has never had any heavy affliction is 
 now to feel its rod of iron, iron that remorselessly enters the 
 heart and lacerates in the name of the Highest. I cannot 
 realize what has befallen us and the world. The almost 
 last link that binds me to Florence has been sundered, and 
 I long more than ever to be away. Mr. Browning will 
 surely leave Italy, and I should not be surprised did he seek 
 a home elsewhere. Italy and his angel wife are one. Or 
 perhaps for this very reason he will be the more ready to 
 remain. I doubt this. Now I know nothing more than 
 that she is dead, to-morrow we are to learn if anything can 
 be done, and are to do it if called upon. I cannot help 
 perceiving that Dr. Wilson, who was called in owing to the 
 absence of Gresanowsky, and who is most forbidding in 
 physiognomy and is said by some to be a humbug, has 
 hastened Mrs. Browning's death by resorting to a violent 
 practice which her weak body was thoroughly incapable of 
 enduring. He began by frightening her, telling her what a 
 fearful state her entire system was in, — a fine way to treat 
 an imaginative person. Gresanowsky knew her constitution, 
 and it does seem most unfortunate that he should have 
 been absent. Since the medical murder of Cavour, I have 
 begun to distrust all doctors in Italy. Dear Mrs. Browning 
 had reached the age of fifty, and had labored long and 
 nobly for humanity, therefore we must be resigned, and 
 think that her release from a long-suffering diseased body 
 is Heaven's reward for a pure, religious life, religious in the 
 truest sense. I can never forget her, and hope that her 
 memory may lead me to better things than have yet been 
 my aspiration. I thank God that I was permitted to know 
 
Florentine Days 137 
 
 her, that I can claim her as a friend, that I may look up- 
 ward for one more tie binding me to a life hereafter. 
 
 Florence, July i, 1861. 
 Dearest Aunt, — I have been completely upset for the 
 last three days, — the death of Mrs. Browning has unfitted 
 me for doing anything. We have just returned from her 
 funeral. We have seen all that is mortal of her buried in 
 the beautiful Protestant burial-ground outside of Florence's 
 walls, where lies Theodore Parker. The service was accord- 
 ing to the Episcopal form. No discourse. Her life had 
 been a sermon ; she needed no other. It was agonizing to 
 look on Mr. Browning — he seemed as though he could 
 hardly stand, and his face expressed the most terrible grief. 
 The poor boy stood beside him with tears in his eyes, and 
 when I glanced from them to the pall where their loved 
 one's remains lay, it seemed as though the sorrow was too 
 much to bear. I yearned to go to Mr. Browning and weep 
 with him that wept. The scene was made impressive in 
 spite of the minister; it was very short, and we were 
 hurried away by Mr. Trollope. A lovely wreath of white 
 flowers and a laurel wreath were placed upon the coffin. 
 The funeral was managed by a friend of the Brownings, 
 and so managed that no one knew anything about anything. 
 Orders were given in the greatest confusion during the three 
 days, and up to this morning I was told that no ladies were 
 to be at the grave. However, Mr. Browning expressed a 
 wish that Miss Blagden should be present and all other 
 friends that desired to ; therefore at the last moment I 
 sent word to those whom I knew would wish to attend, 
 and in this way there were sorrowing women to mourn for a 
 great woman. The funeral would have been meagre with- 
 out them. I thought that Mr. Landor ought to have been 
 there, and had I known that the service would have been 
 so short would have gone for him. The Storys came up 
 
138 Kate Field 
 
 from Leghorn; young Lytton, Mr. TroUope, the Powers, 
 and others paid the last tribute to her memory. There 
 were very few Italians; they were invited to attend, but 
 with their usual indifferences abstained from doing so, in- 
 different to one who loved Italy with her whole soul and 
 labored for it with her whole intellect ! England and 
 America will mourn if Italy does not. Mr. Browning is 
 almost heartbroken; last night he did nothing but rush 
 through the house. He says that he will sell everything, 
 settle up everything, and leave Italy forever, — only return 
 to be buried beside his wife. He will probably go almost 
 immediately to Paris, where his father and sisters live. God 
 be with him ! My hold upon Italy has gone. The Brown- 
 ings were dear to me ; she was a guiding light, and will ever 
 remain so, wherever I may be. 
 
 With the breaking up of the Browning household 
 the glory of Florence vanished for the girl who had 
 so deeply loved and revered Elizabeth Barrett 
 Browning. There was for her in the air that subtle 
 feeling so exquisitely expressed in the lines of Bliss 
 Carman : — 
 
 " The old, eternal Spring once more 
 
 Comes back the sad eternal way ; 
 With tender, rosy light before 
 
 The going out of day. 
 The great white moon across my door 
 
 A shadow in the twilight stirs ; 
 But now forever comes no more 
 
 That wondrous look of Hers." 
 
 Yet, withal, while Kate grieved for the inspiring 
 friend who had .vanished from mortal sight, and 
 while obstacles and difficulties surrounded her, she 
 was not depressed. In the heart of the artist 
 
 " There 's always, always something sings," 
 
Florentine Days 1 39 
 
 and her preponderance of the ideal nature was her 
 saving grace. Youth and its boundless exhilaration 
 were with her ; and although her press letters to Amer- 
 ica were neglected (the war not unnaturally crowding 
 out all other interests) she took matters with a certain 
 serenity that was doubtless the effect of unseen 
 ministries. 
 
 " We see not half the causes of our deeds, 
 Seeking them wholly in the other life, 
 And heedless of the encircling spirit world 
 Which, though unseen, is felt." 
 
 Looking over Kate Field's life as seen in retro- 
 spect, one cannot fail to recognize how her father, 
 from the Unseen, guarded and directed his idolized 
 daughter more effectively, indeed, than he could 
 have done on earth. 
 
 Mr. Browning and his little son, accompanied by 
 Miss Blagden, left for Paris. Casa Guidi without her 
 presence was intolerable to him. 
 
 " Places are too much 
 Or else too little, for immortal man." 
 
 Just before leaving Mr. Browning sent to Kate this 
 note : — 
 
 July 6, 1 861. 
 Dear Friend, — God bless you and yours for all your 
 kindness, which I shall never forget. I cannot write now 
 except to say this, and beside that I have had great comfort 
 from the beginning. I know you are truth itself in all you 
 profess to feel about her. She also loved you, as you felt. 
 I hope to see you soon and talk with you. Meantime ever 
 remember me as 
 
 Your affectionate R. B. 
 
 I speak to Mrs. Field also, you understand. 
 
140 Kate Field 
 
 Goethe's mother affirmed that whenever her son 
 had a grief he made a poem of it. The impulse to 
 record the deepest feehng in literary expression is 
 with all writers, and Kate found in the writing of a 
 sketch of Mrs. Browning a channel for hers. This 
 article, which appeared in the September number of 
 the " Atlantic Monthly" for 1861, has long since been 
 conceded to be the finest interpretation that was ever 
 given of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.^ It will forever 
 remain the one perfect interpretation of Mrs. Brown- 
 ing in its portrayal of the sympathetic divination that 
 so peculiarly characterized her, and as the authorita- 
 tive transcription of the exquisite life in Casa Guidi. 
 Mr. TroUope read the article in manuscript and sur- 
 prised Kate by pronouncing it the most adequate and 
 perfect sketch of Mrs. Browning that he had ever 
 seen. Kate wrote to her aunt: "I have sent it to 
 the ' Atlantic,' but of course it will not be accepted, 
 notwithstanding I said I would take no money for 
 what was written as a tribute of love." However, it 
 was accepted, and as in those days the " Atlantic " did 
 not allow its contributors to sign their work, this paper 
 was often erroneously ascribed to Mr. Story, who was 
 a well-known contributor, and whose literary talent 
 and well-known friendship with the Brownings gave 
 probability to such authorship ; the circumstantial 
 evidence being as misleading as such evidence has 
 been known to be on more serious occasions than 
 this. However, the semi-annual list of contributors 
 which the " Atlantic " gave establishes this paper on 
 Mrs. Browning as Kate Field's, even to those who do 
 not know the fact from the personal side. 
 
 To her aunt Kate wrote : — 
 
 1 A Study of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 
Florentine Days 141 
 
 " Mr. Browning has a very severe cold, and the other 
 night he thought he was dying, being attacked by a fit of 
 strangulation. Miss Blagden says the change in his face is 
 marvellous. God help him ! I love him more now for her 
 sake. He has just written a reply to my note of sympathy, 
 which I copy for you. ' God bless you and yours for all 
 your kindness, which I shall never forget. I cannot write 
 now except to say this, — and, besides, that I have had 
 great comfort from the beginning. I know you are truth 
 itself in all you profess to feel about her. She also loved 
 you, as you felt. I shall see you soon and talk to you ; 
 meantime and ever remember me as your affectionate 
 R. B.' It is a great comfort to have this note, — to be told 
 again that she loved me. Oh, Aunt Corda ! hers was such 
 a beautifiil spirit that the tears flood up from my heart 
 whenever I think of her, which is very, very often. We 
 went to her grave two days ago. I could not feel that she 
 was there. I hope she will think of me sometimes in the 
 other world, and out of her love for humanity influence me 
 for good. I did worship her as a glorious type of woman- 
 hood, — unselfish, suffering, loving, grand. She is not dead 
 to me j but the absence of her dear face is hard to bear. 
 I am trying to write upon her, but feel how unworthy I am 
 for such a task. We shall probably go up to Miss Blagden 
 to-day. She is very gloomy, of course. To me Florence is 
 one vast Campo Santo ; my hopes in it are dead. It seems 
 as though there was to be a break up of everything. 
 
 "We passed several evenings at Villa Erichieri before 
 coming away. Mr. Browning is very subdued, very dear, 
 and has been more than kind to us. He gave mother a 
 favorite shawl that belonged to dear Mrs. Browning, and 
 me a locket that she had before she was married, and of 
 which she was very fond. In the centre is a crystal, in 
 which is her hair shaped in two hearts. The gold around 
 it is a serpent emblem of eternity. I cannot tell you how 
 
142 Kate Field 
 
 much I value this souvenir. We went to Casa Guidi to take 
 a last farewell of it. Everything was just as she had left it, 
 — the half-opened fan, the last ' Nazione ' that she had read, 
 the open desk on which she had written all her poems. It 
 was sad, very, very sad ! I felt far worse than when stand- 
 ing at her grave. An artist here has sketched the drawing- 
 room in oils, and has made a most satisfactory picture, not 
 as a painting, but on account of the minute detail. He has 
 put in everything, and the sketch brings the dear room right 
 before you. Mr. Browning is to have it photographed, 
 and has promised me a copy of it. He, Penini, and Miss 
 Blagden leave to-day for Paris if all the furniture of Casa 
 Guidi can be packed or sold in time. Miss Blagden 
 has gotten release from her villa, stored her furniture with 
 Mr. TroUope, and intends to pass a year at least in Eng- 
 land. Mr. Browning does not think he shall ever return to 
 Italy, — at least not to Florence. He says he shall never 
 have a home again, but rove about the world. He said he 
 might come to America some time or other. So there is 
 nobody left in Florence but the TroUopes. You can fancy 
 how changed the place must be to me. Dr. Gresanowsky, 
 however, returns in the fall. I have met Lytton, the poet, 
 several times. He talks exceedingly well, and is by no 
 means a snob. I like to hear him converse, for there is no 
 doubt about his being exceedingly intellectual, and he puts 
 forth his best powers before Mr. Browning, whom he adores ; 
 but I don't like the man as a man. Although under thirty, 
 he has the broken-down appearance of a blas^ man of fifty. 
 You can read dissipation in his face and in his stooping 
 figure and shuffling gait. He is weak in character, and this 
 one sees most readily in his poetry. There is nothing vig- 
 orous about him, nor is there anything lofty in his aspira- 
 tions. There never was greater contrast in persons, as well 
 as mind, as between him and Mr. Browning. I pity Mr. 
 Lytton, for he has misused his life ; but there is an inherent 
 
Florentine Days 143 
 
 want of truth and candor about him that prevents him from 
 ever obtaining the respect of honest, earnest natures. He 
 has lately written a review on Mr. Browning." 
 
 Out of this apparently dissolving fabric of life new 
 combinations were to arise. Friends are taken from 
 us ; circumstances change like the baseless fabric of 
 a dream ; the skies fall upon the ruins of our per- 
 sonal world, and then out of this wreck and ruin 
 suddenly arises, like a dream of enchantment, a new 
 world that brings with it, in essence, all that is best 
 of the old. " The flowing conditions of life," says 
 Emerson ; and how true to actual experience is that 
 description. 
 
 " Who thinks at midnight morn will ever dawn 1 
 Who knows, far out at sea, that anywhere is land ? and yet a 
 
 shore 
 Hath set behind us, and will rise before." 
 
 The truth of these words was to fulfil itself to Kate 
 Field. Her Florence had crumbled before her eyes ; 
 her health was very uncertain ; the financial reliance 
 she had been encouraged to feel had been withdrawn 
 because she had given full expression to her ardent 
 espousal of the cause of the Union ; the war closed 
 for the time the literary market; the dreams she 
 had cherished of lyric art were abandoned ; the one 
 beloved friend, Mrs. Browning, was taken from her, 
 and the beautiful life in Casa Guidi was no more. 
 Yet something whispered to the girl to be of good 
 cheer. 
 
 " Mortal, they softly say, 
 
 ' Peace to thy heart. 
 We, too, yes, mortal, 
 
 Have been as thou art. 
 
144 Kate Field 
 
 Hope-lifted, doubt-depressed, 
 
 Seeing in part, 
 Tried, troubled, tempted. 
 
 Sustained as thou art.' " 
 
 Out of the chapters of experiences that make up 
 life there always remains a certain residuum. The 
 outer events vanish; the ideas and purposes de- 
 veloped remain. In Kate Field's life the Florentine 
 influences were to germinate and grow. They entered 
 into her mind, moulding her character. They were 
 to find their inflorescence in a certain exquisite grace 
 that always invested her; in a purity of purpose and 
 nobleness of quality which became the very fibre of 
 her being. 
 
 In the purely literary sense, also, this period had a 
 rich fruition in her grasp of the themes embodied in 
 her series of papers in the "Atlantic Monthly" be- 
 tween 1861 and 1868, comprising her article on Mrs. 
 Browning; the three entitled "Last Days of Walter 
 Savage Landor; " the charming sketch, full of color 
 and character-drawing, entitled " English Authors in 
 Florence ; " and others, including " A Conversation 
 on the Stage," " Adelaide Ristori," and " Fechter as 
 Hamlet." All her life was she to draw sweetness and 
 inspiration from this charmed period of her youth in 
 Bella Firenze. 
 
LECTURING AND WRITING 
 
 " Thought is the wages 
 For which I sell days." 
 
 Duty, freedom, truth, a divine life, what are they ? They are 
 the real things of God, for which all poor temporalities of fame, 
 ease, and life are to be cast to the winds. 
 
 Theodore Parker. 
 
 " Around the one who seeks a noble end 
 Not angels, but divinities attend." 
 
Kate Field. 
 From a Photograph, I865. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 O young Mariner, 
 Down to the haven. 
 Call your companions, 
 Launch your vessel. 
 And crowd your canvas, 
 And, eie it vanishes 
 Over the margin, 
 After it, follow it, 
 Follow the Gleam ! 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 Lecturing and Writing. Intense Energy of Purpose. 
 John Brown's Grave. Ristori, Fechter, and the Drama. 
 Planchette's Diary. Death of Eliza Riddle Field. 
 
 ON returning to America Mrs. and Miss Field 
 passed some years in Boston, New York, 
 and Newport without any very settled conditions 
 of life. The summer of 1863 they spent largely 
 at Sharon Springs, and in La Rue Cottage where 
 they were boarding, there was a very interesting 
 and accomplished Catholic priest, Father Fiarotti, 
 between whom and Kate sprang up a warm friend- 
 ship. The political state of the country interested 
 Kate deeply. The policy of Governor Seymour of 
 New York was then attracting attention and denun- 
 ciation from the supporters of Lincoln ; and in a 
 private letter Kate says : — 
 
 " A fine state of mob in New York. How my blood has 
 boiled the last two days ! Thank God ! Boston has behaved 
 better. Our Governor has not addressed murderers and 
 
148 Kate Field 
 
 house-breakers as ' friends.' ' The fact is,' said a New 
 York gentleman yesterday, ' our city is controlled by venal 
 politicians; in Boston there is a government.' Abraham 
 Lincoln can not have sunk so low as to be frightened out 
 of drafting by Seymour and ' the left wing of Lee's army,' 
 as the mob is called. The rioters only help on the good 
 cause of union and liberty." 
 
 During that summer Mr. Vedder and Charles 
 Caryll Coleman made sojourns at the Springs, and 
 the pleasant comradeship of Italy was renewed. 
 
 Mrs. Field and her daughter changed their loca- 
 tion frequently within the succeeding decade. Kate 
 was thinking and writing and planning, and living 
 her daily life with intensity and with purpose. Her 
 circle of nearer friends included many of the most 
 interesting people of the day. Boston was then in 
 the golden age when Emerson and Lowell and 
 Longfellow, Sumner, Dr. Howe, James T. Fields, and 
 Edwin P. Whipple were to be met under the over- 
 arching elms of the old Common ; when Curtis, 
 Phillips, Garrison, and Lowell were to be heard 
 from the platform; when Mrs. Julia Ward Howe 
 was one of the younger matrons, — a brilliant pres- 
 ence greatly sought and admired ; when Louisa 
 Alcott first enchanted the juvenile world with her 
 "Little Women;" when Louise Chandler Moulton 
 was in the early dawn of her poetic fame ; when 
 Edmund Clarence Stedman inaugurated his ex- 
 quisite criticism ; when Henry Ward Beecher was 
 the great preacher of the day, and Horace Greeley, 
 Prof, and Mrs. Vincenzo Botta, and Phoebe and Alice 
 Cary were prominent figures in New York life. 
 From these days during her entire lifetime Mr. 
 Stedman was one of the nearest and most deeply 
 
Lecturing and Writing 1 49 
 
 prized friends of Kate Field, giving to her appre- 
 ciation and counsel and sympathy in a measure of 
 which any mere mention conveys little idea of the 
 fulness and strength of the inner current. 
 
 It was somewhere about this time that Miss Field 
 became the Boston correspondent of the Springfield 
 " Republican/' then edited by that brilliant journalist, 
 Mr. Samuel Bowles. The friendship between Miss 
 Field and Mr. Bowles continued during his life, and 
 one of the most finely appreciative of the memorial 
 tributes to him was written by Kate Field. For a 
 number of years Kate's letters to the Springfield 
 " Republican " were signed " Straws, Jr.," in imitation 
 of her father's signature of " Straws " in his press 
 correspondence. In playful allusion to this pen- 
 name is the following note from Mrs. Annie 
 Fields : — 
 
 Dear Kate, — Three cheers for " Straws, Jr.'' The 
 letter is capital, — full of spirit from end to end. How 
 glad I am you wrote this letter about Mr. Dickens ! It 
 is such a reUef, somehow, to say a little when we feel so 
 much. He told me of the pretty basket of flowers on his 
 desk, and I beUeve I felt almost as much pleasure as you 
 in the reading. A. F. 
 
 Again is there this pleasant note from Mrs. 
 Fields : — 
 
 Dear Kate, — I have just read Miss Blagden's 
 romance, " Agnes Trevor," which, in spite of inaccuracies 
 of style, has fascinated me by bringing all Italy to my 
 wintry fireside and filling the common world with lovely 
 pictures of zcw-common character, yet such as we see 
 slumbering under the mask which too many think is 
 human, Christian — perhaps necessary to wear. . . . 
 
150 Kate Field 
 
 The great Fair held in New York in 1864 for the 
 benefit of the Sanitary Commission was one of the 
 subjects vividly handled in Miss Field's letters, in 
 one of which she says: — 
 
 " General Fremont and Mrs. Fremont were there, he look- 
 ing very intensely out of that eagle eye, and she the em- 
 bodiment of a strong, brilliant, impulsive woman. General 
 McClellan also was there, creating a little curiosity and 
 indeed a vastly interesting study to the impartial critic. 
 It were not possible for such a head and face to save a 
 country. Salvation is not written on a hair or a line, but 
 there are symptoms of incompetency everywhere." 
 
 And again, of the art of the day as represented in 
 the donations to the Fair : — 
 
 " By far the most hopeful and promising pictures among 
 the rising men are the little interior 'Repose,' by George 
 H. Boughton ; the ' Post Boy ' and ' Working for the 
 Fair ' by Eastman Johnson ; the ' Prayer ' by Hennessy, 
 and a sunny ' Interior ' by Charles Caryll Coleman. 
 
 "The two hundred pictures that have been donated to 
 the Fair represent almost as many New York artists, and 
 demonstrate not only that art is patriotic, but that it is 
 growing powerful in numbers as well. Church, Bierstadt, 
 Dana, Vedder, Winslow Homer, Gifford, Samuel Coleman, 
 Kensett, Beard, Whittredge, and Gray have contributed 
 the best work." 
 
 Miss Field's letters from Italy revealed her tren- 
 chant incisiveness of expression, and her press work 
 of these years shows the growing development of her 
 pungent phrasing. It was an effervescent style, — 
 arresting at the moment and not unfrequently en- 
 riched with a vein of thought and epigrammatic ex- 
 pression worthy of a less ephemeral medium than the 
 
LectuHng and Writing 151 
 
 daily press. She had an unusual power of present- 
 ing scenes vividly with terse condensation. Abound- 
 ing in a sense of humor, she served up many a 
 phase of life with sauce piquante ; and her letters 
 setting forth a dress reform craze that swept over 
 New York and New England, a Fourth of July in 
 Boston, the great Peace Jubilee held on the Com- 
 mon, and various features of the season at Newport, 
 are like a series of instantaneous photographs of 
 the times. The contrast between the Newport of 
 1864 and that of to-day is a commentary on the 
 development of " the leisure class " in America which 
 might well enlist the attention of Mr. Thorstein 
 Veblen. One of these letters bears the very Kate- 
 Fieldian heading, " The Miseries of Pleasure : " while 
 another invites the reader to " Richmond and Reli- 
 gion," a keen bit of reflection on Jefferson Davis. Of 
 Mrs. Howe's country house, near Newport, Miss 
 Field thus writes : — 
 
 " Six miles north of Newport, on what is called the West 
 road, is a charming bit of nature known as Lawton's valley. 
 It is a most decided valley, steep and narrow, bounded 
 north and south by rather high hills. Through it a brook 
 trickles, forming quite a pretty water-fall, above which there 
 stands an old mill, long unused, which, from the valley 
 below, looks like the remains of a Swiss chalet. This 
 valley runs down to the sea; and here many 2. fete cham- 
 petre, many a pleasant informal picnic, many an aesthetic 
 tea, have been given by the lady whose cottage and whose 
 hospitality have given celebrity to it. Here French officers 
 have danced on the green, youths and maidens have wielded 
 the mallet of that apparently inexhaustibly fascinating game, 
 croquet ; grave and reverend seniors have hobnobbed over 
 great questions, and all the clever men and women visiting 
 
152 Kate Field 
 
 Newport have found their way hither. The valley, attrac- 
 tive though it be, would have few worshippers were it not 
 for its presiding genius, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, whose 
 name is too well known to require aught but its mention. 
 A recent tea-party there recalls pleasant memories of 
 Henry T. Tuckerman, who, as passionately and rationally 
 in love with Newport as your special correspondent, never 
 fails to pass the summer here, thereby laying the large 
 supply of health required to endure the remorseless demands 
 of a New York winter ; of Miss Sarah Freeman Clarke, the 
 artist, whose cosy cottage in the harbor is frequented by all 
 the bright lights that shine steadily or flash occasionally on 
 Newport ; of Miss Margaret Foley, the sculptress, who has 
 lately returned from Rome on a visit which will terminate in 
 November. While here, Miss Foley was engaged upon a 
 medallion of Mrs. Howe." 
 
 Miss Field writes long letters, too, on the Academy 
 exhibitions in New^ York in those years. A New 
 York critic had attacked William Hunt, and we find 
 Miss Field — who was one of his truest appreciators — 
 saying : — 
 
 " Most incorrect, too, is the statement that Mr. Hunt is 
 a slave to Couture's manner. That he studied with 
 Couture for a time is true enough, but his style of painting 
 is thoroughly un-Couturian. If he must be likened to any 
 former master it should be Millet, with whom he naturally 
 sympathizes, though we believe that Mr. Hunt is an 
 original man, and always thoroughly himself. One artist 
 may resemble another without being an imitator. There is 
 a little sketch in Boston so like Millet in manner that for a 
 moment we attributed it to him, until told that it was by 
 Vedder. At the time it was painted, the artist had never 
 seen anything of Millet's, nor did he know there was such 
 a painter living. 
 
Lecturing and Writing 153 
 
 " But these three pictures are Mr. Hunt playing with his 
 brushes, and we blame him for doing himself injustice, in 
 not allowing New York to see his finest work. He has 
 hardly treated the Exhibition with sufficient respect, for 
 though the Academy is absurd enough in many ways, 
 still it is the national institution, and every artist should 
 make it a point of honor to contribute his very best. 
 Though Mr. Hunt's worst may be better than many a 
 National Academician's most pretentious effort, he at least, 
 is too true an artist not to be more exacting with himself 
 than any one else can be. A want of earnestness is not 
 one of Mr. Hunt's faults. Could the critic of the ' New 
 Path ' visit Hunt's studio, he would see there works superior 
 to ' Marguerite.' He would see a portrait of a mother and 
 child that, unfinished as it is, would have represented the 
 artist's power far more truly than anything of his in New 
 York. He would see a life-size ' Hamlet,' that ought to 
 have been completed for the exhibition. He would see 
 the portrait of a blonde, beautiful in pose and drawing, 
 Titianesque in color, such a painting as does Hunt credit. 
 He would see, too, a composition called ' Night,' which, 
 though only rubbed in, is fine in idea and vigorous in exe- 
 cution. What the public ought to demand of Mr. Hunt is, 
 that he should finish the work he has begun, and not allow 
 critics to mourn over 'rich possibilities.' Mr. Hunt is 
 great in suggestion, and it will be sad indeed, if he does 
 not carry out his noblest inspirations. But he will." 
 
 In this early estimate of Hunt, vi^e find Miss Field 
 agreeing with the later, and the mature and authorita- 
 tive estimate made of him by his favorite pupil, and 
 afterward his co-worker, Miss Helen M. Knowlton, 
 whose biography of the great master in American 
 art is one of the ablest interpretations of life and 
 genius. 
 
154 Kate Field 
 
 John Weiss was another whom Kate truly appre- 
 ciated, and of him in this brilliant press correspond- 
 ence of her youth, she wrote : — 
 
 " John Weiss is always in earnest ; therefore whether you 
 agree or disagree with him, he commands your liking and 
 respect. He is saturated with his subject ; he has con- 
 victions ; he believes in his opinions. The fire in his soul 
 never burns low. It is always bright and ready to warm 
 the cold, faint-hearted wayfarer. Therefore his essay on 
 the ' Law of Marriage ' inspires, though it does not pre- 
 scribe a panacea for happiness. He believes that marriage 
 is the best wine of life, and his eloquence makes converts 
 of the willing. To some his theories are too radical; to 
 others not radical enough ; to the few they are inadequate ; 
 to all, many passages of the essay are beautiful. The scoffer 
 dares not show his colors in the presence of so much genu- 
 ine enthusiasm. The reader of French novels breathes an 
 atmosphere impossible when under the influence of morbid 
 thought. Mr. Weiss does not describe matrimony as un- 
 adulterated bliss, but he does assert it to be the nearest 
 approach to individual completion." 
 
 Of Vedder we find this finely critical estimate : — 
 
 " By far the most promising ardst in America is Elihu 
 Vedder, a native and resident of New York, whose picture, 
 ' The Lair of the Sea Serpent,' is the most prominent work 
 on exhibition at the Academy of Design. After wandering 
 through a wilderness of mediocrity, it renders one speech- 
 less to come suddenly upon so much originality of idea and 
 power of execution. At last the myth of the sea has found 
 an interpreter. Criticisms on this painting are loud and 
 various, and though many are repelled by the steel-gray 
 monster that is the only bit of life in a wonderful landscape, 
 all are obliged to allow the exceeding ability of the artist. 
 
Lecturing and Writing 155 
 
 Fancy a background of silvery-blue sea and soft, transparent 
 sky which is a reflex of the water, a dead calm pervading, 
 allowing scarce a ripple of the water even where it nears the 
 land, — a warmth so tropical that you feel as though you 
 stood on the equator. In the foreground lies a sandy, sul- 
 try waste, stretching out into the sea with a wonderful effect. 
 Tufts of grass, burnt yellow by the scorching noonday sun, 
 show how dead is vegetation, and a cluster of scrubby brush 
 is the centre around which is visible the serpent's trail. 
 Back of this, on higher ground, lies the sea-serpent, coil on 
 coil, his head resting upon the sand with a dilated eye as 
 glittering and sultry as the still life around it. Critics have 
 exhausted the passions of hate, revenge, etc., etc., in de- 
 scribing what they consider to be an ' evil eye.' To us, 
 that eye expresses nothing more terrible than insatiable, 
 impatient longing. Here is a creature drearily alone in his 
 lair, the last of his kind, doomed to roam the sea, another 
 species of wandering Jew, no likeness to other monsters of 
 the deep, no recognition from them, — a friendless thing 
 that sees itself unlike all nature in its solitude, that seems 
 to ask in a dumb, passionate way how many ages more 
 existence must be prolonged. To us this picture is the 
 tragedy of solitude. Many are disappointed that the sea- 
 serpent is not painted in gay colors ; such a serpent would 
 be contrary to nature, which gives dark coloring to the 
 largest animals of both sea and land. Others maintain 
 that Vedder's serpent could never find its way to Barnum's 
 or be recognized by Agassiz. If Agassiz or Barnum knows 
 how a sea-serpent looks, they are wise, and should establish 
 the reality of what the artist has imagined to be a myth. 
 Real or unreal, the sea-serpent is going to Boston, having 
 been purchased at the private view by Thomas Gold Apple- 
 ton, the well-known art patron. Mr. Vedder has still an- 
 other picture at this exhibition, — a bit of Venetian coloring, 
 that is exceedingly powerful." 
 
156 Kate Field 
 
 These press letters of Kate Field's through the 
 years of 1863-69 contain material that is not without 
 value in permanent literature. 
 
 The following interesting letter from Thomas 
 Adolphus TroUope came to her: — 
 
 Christmas Day, 1864, Florence. 
 
 Dearest Kate, — How can I sufficiently thank you for 
 all your abounding kindnesses, moral and material, your 
 pudding and your praise, and what a wretch I am for not 
 having written to you sooner ; but if you know what it is 
 to be struggUng on to do the daily tale of bricks against in- 
 terruption of every possible kind, and how necessary it is 
 that I should have completed my history of Florence in time 
 for publication in May, you would be disposed to forgive 
 me. I have just reached the death of Savonarola, and 
 hope, having all my materials ready, to be in time ; but I 
 have two more months of hard labor before me. 
 
 Thanks a thousand times, dear Kate, for the " Atlantic," 
 and for the only too kind things you have said in it. Your 
 article contains the only correct account I have ever seen 
 in print of the circumstances that led to the publication of 
 the domestic manners of the Americans. As I write the 
 title, it strikes me that the most objectionable part of the 
 work is that title. It implies generality, where particularity 
 should have been expressed. Isa tells me that she has 
 written to you all she could tell of Landor's last hours. I 
 met by chance old Mrs. Landor the other day. She was 
 very curious about the will which he has made. There is 
 no mention in it of any of his children. What little he had 
 to leave he has left to his nieces, but you know that he had 
 long since given up the bulk of his property to his eldest 
 son. She told me what I did not know before, that her 
 son had been obliged to pay the damages, ^1000, 
 awarded by the jury in the case of libel to Mrs. . 
 
Lecturing and Writing 157 
 
 I presume that she has been abW to put her hand on some 
 property in England to which she had a claim. She was 
 very furious against Browning, who is executor to the will. 
 It seems to me unnecessary. She told me that when he 
 (Landor) heard that Mrs. Gestone had succeeded in get- 
 ting his money, he tried to starve himself. Many thanks 
 for your notices of Landor. The book has done very well 
 in England. . . . The book of engravings is yours, and re- 
 mains in my hands. What am I to do with it ? 
 
 Mrs. Browning's monument has not yet been erected, but 
 will shortly be so. Leighton, who was intrusted by Mr. 
 Browning with the design, was exceedingly and very rea- 
 sonably angry on coming here in the autumn to superintend 
 the erection of the monument, to find that the sculptor had 
 most unwarrantably changed divers parts of the design. 
 Some of these departures from his plan Leighton insisted 
 on having restored, as far as was possible, to what he had 
 intended, and this has led to considerable delay. And I 
 should fear that the monument, when it is put up, will not 
 be wholly satisfactory to Mr. Browning or Mr. Leighton. 
 
 I am delighted, truly delighted, to hear of the literary 
 progress you are making and the evident opening of a 
 career before you. Would to God that it were possible for 
 you to get something that should involve a residence here 
 as its means of execution ! Surely many of your papers will 
 require a correspondent in the Capital of Italy? It would 
 be a very great delight to have you here. 
 
 It really does seem at last as if Sherman and Thomas are 
 making important steps towards the final crushing of the 
 Rebellion. But of course it is difficult here to form any 
 accurate opinion of the exact probable result of their 
 operations. 
 
 Did you see what the "Daily News" said of Seward's 
 answer to Lord Horncliff ? Seward's letter was by no 
 
158 Kate Field 
 
 means a bad one, but I am inclined to think with the 
 "Daily News" that it would have been more dignified to 
 have replied by a simple and haughtily cold refusal. The 
 impudence of the proposal was so outrageous that it needed 
 no remark to point it out. I almost think that I would 
 have given no answer at all. . . . 
 
 I am very fortunate in the moment at which my history 
 of Florence will come out, next May, just at the time when 
 general attention will be called to the subject by the coming 
 of the capital. If you do not make haste to visit the old 
 place again you will not recognize it, so great are the 
 changes that are in prospect and in progress. . . . 
 
 I suppose you have heard all about Mrs. Ritchie's dra- 
 matic drawing-room ; thirteen representations have been 
 given with a very encouraging amount of success, and now 
 a short carnival season is about to begin of six nights, — /. e. 
 six Saturdays. Really, Mrs. Ritchie's enterprise has done a 
 great deal for Florence, and has made the late autumn 
 much gayer than it would have been otherwise. 
 
 Pray tell me how in case of need any book might be sent 
 to you better than by the post. I finish this letter, dear 
 Kate, at three-thirty a. m. on Monday the 2d of November. 
 We have no ball this capo d'anno the first time in Florence 
 for more than twenty years, and I must be back at my desk 
 at nine a. m. this morning for my new day's work, so you 
 may judge that it is not without difficulty that I find the 
 time to write. I am really working very hard. Give my 
 kindest love to your dear mother, and be sure, dearest Kate, 
 that I am and shall always be. 
 
 Very affectionately yours, 
 
 T. A. Trollope. 
 
 A letter from Mr. Vedder gives this intimate view 
 of the great artist's life at this early period : — 
 
Lecturing and Writing 159 
 
 Paris, 22 June, i866. 
 Friend Kate, — You have doubtless received the letter 
 I wrote when feeling very discouraged, and when I should 
 not have written at all. But I suppose it is my fate to lose 
 my best friends and then work out my salvation in sorrow 
 and alone. Since then, I have read your letter over and 
 over and fully appreciate the thorough kindness in it, and I 
 thank you for it and am determined to set to work and 
 profit by it. That it made me angry is a good sign, although 
 I must continue to think that spurning is more apt to make 
 me balk than anything else. I am just what I am, so shall 
 write no more on that subject. Only I would say once for 
 all, that I desire sincerely to be your good friend and to 
 always have you as such. I was delighted with your article 
 in the " Galaxy " and am glad you sent it. I have been look- 
 ing out for good articles on the Exposition here to send 
 you, but I could not bear to send such trash — not to put 
 too fine a point on it — as came under my notice. I have 
 given up reading criticisms on art. I like that person 
 telling Hunt to try some " tints from Story's palette." 
 Coleman is here, and I have settled him and his mother in 
 a good house for the present ; a most unsettled settling it is 
 in Charley's case, as he is vibrating between furnishing 
 rooms and going into the country. I have had a busy time 
 getting Inman, Hitchcock, and Charley in running order, but 
 hope they can now take care of themselves. ... I should 
 like to know when the stream of American immigrants to 
 Paris will stop. I have n't the faintest idea of your not 
 being among them in due time. I am glad of it. I feel 
 more like working already. Charley How has been in Paris, 
 but did not call. Are you still of the opinion that the 
 Italian is not worth thinking of as a commission ? I have 
 no letters of introduction except to Colonel Hay — and^ one 
 to Lawrence in Florence. I have not money enough to 
 move with independence in society here, and lack the de- 
 
i6o Kate Field 
 
 sire. May repents bitterly all the time he has wasted in 
 that way. I give that for what it is worth. The state of 
 my funds is low, but not eminently dangerous. I have 
 nearly finished a nude picture, which will be good at least. 
 I am very glad that Mrs. Sanford sent my picture to the 
 exhibition. ... Be kind enough to thank her for me. 
 Hope you will improve in health and not remain in Boston. 
 Sincerely, E. V. 
 
 The first exhibition of Harriet Hosmer's " Beatrice 
 Cenci;" the first appearance of Tennyson's "Enoch 
 Arden," which seems to have made a great sensation ; 
 the Bryant Festival in the early part of 1865, when 
 Emerson and Mrs. Howe went over from Boston, and 
 of which, in describing, Miss Field speaks of the 
 " charmed hearers," who listened to Mrs. Howe's 
 reading of her poem ; Edwin Booth's Hamlet ; the 
 lyric genius of Adelaide Phillipps and the philan- 
 thropic work of Clara Barton, — all the range of which 
 these themes are typical is represented in Kate Field's 
 press letters through these years. Of Adelaide Phil- 
 lipps we find her saying : — 
 
 " Miss Phillipps knows how to sing. What nature could 
 not do, art has accomplished. Her style is the purest 
 Italian, her execution exceedingly fine, and her versatility 
 unusual, for she is equally at home in intensely dramatic, 
 comic, and sacred music. Her rendering of Orpheus' great 
 song ('Che faro senza Euridice') by Gluck, is second only 
 to Viardot Garcia's, and the manner in which she sang ' Una 
 voce poco fa ' from the ' Barber of Seville ' at a concert 
 given here recently, was superb. In Europe it would 
 have created a furore." 
 
 To the Academy of 1865 Vedder contributed eight 
 pictures, of which Miss Field wrote: — 
 
Lecturing and Writing i6i 
 
 " All are admirable; two of them are remarkable. 'The 
 Girl Feeding Chickens ' is a poem, such as dear human 
 Hood might have written. . . . ' A Lost Mind ' is another 
 name for a lost love embodied in a woman more fascinating 
 through her magnetism than her beauty. . . . The woman 
 is of the intellectual style, — a sort of Romola, who, too 
 human, too broad-visioned to enter a convent, wanders into 
 the world in search of her old self. She is one of those 
 few women capable of a ' grande passion,' who has loved 
 with body, heart, and soul, and has waked to find the lover 
 lost. The mind is not gone, it is simply eclipsed by hope- 
 less grief; therefore we seriously object to the name of this 
 picture. It is the story of a broken heart, and although 
 hearts cannot be broken without stunning the intellect, still, 
 in this case the mind sits enthroned even in its stupor. 
 The majority of people, interpreting the painting by its 
 name and not by the idea conveyed, insist upon seeing a 
 fit subject for an insane asylum. However ideal a picture 
 may be, we do not believe in leaving its name to the 
 imagination, for names, as Hamerton says, ' are almost 
 as necessary to works of art as to living persons, for it is 
 inconceivable how any work should become celebrated 
 without one.' It is best not to indulge in misnomers. 
 
 "The greatness of 'Lost Mind' consists in suggestion. 
 It shows that Vedder is rich in ideas, and that with proper 
 study and growth he may attain to the first rank among 
 poets. In execution the picture has shortcomings. The 
 nose of the face is too long, the hand is not harmonious, 
 and the whole picture denotes the fact that the artist 
 worked without models. This is his misfortune, not his 
 fault ; for models in America are rarer than angels' visits, 
 and the art student groans in spirit at the lack of proper 
 tools for work. Should Vedder go to Paris, as is his inten- 
 tion, and study faithfully under the influence of the French 
 school, with the example of such men as Gerome, Millet, 
 
1 62 Kate Field 
 
 and Corot before him, he will, in a few years' time, be able to 
 paint a ' Lost Mind ' that will be a glory to American art. 
 
 " Many object to Mr. Vedder's recent pictures because of 
 their sombre tone ; and a critic verges on complaint be- 
 cause in looking at the ' Lost Mind ' every beholder feels 
 sadder for it. Would it not be as sensible to demur at 
 ' Hamlet ' because every reader or spectator of it feels the 
 sadder for it? Must every painting be a species of jig in 
 color? People don't look at tragedies to be amused." 
 
 This criticism made on Vedder when he was so 
 young an artist is curiously interesting as embodying 
 a prophetic verdict that the years since have more 
 than fulfilled. Equally prophetic, too, was her in- 
 stant vision of the place Lincoln would hold in the 
 heart of the nation when, on his assassination, she 
 wrote : — 
 
 " Abraham Lincoln was removed at the flood-tide of his 
 fortune. He is now all-wise and all-powerful, and will live 
 in history as a grand sacrifice to the cause of human pro- 
 gress. John Wilkes Booth has made a hero of the honest 
 backwoodsman. The crucifixion of the last Good Friday 
 has canonized its victim." 
 
 As a critic of the arts, — music, painting, and the 
 drama, — Kate Field ranks among the best the world 
 has known, in our own country, England, or France. 
 Her literary criticism, while always effective and often 
 adequate, has not quite the completeness of judg- 
 ment and unerring insight that marked her critiques 
 of lyric, dramatic, or pictorial art. Her literary judg- 
 ments, while formed from able standards, — for her 
 mind was stored with the choicest quality of litera- 
 ture, were occasionally colored by her eager and 
 impetuous temperament, and a certain vehemence in 
 
Lecturing and Writing 163 
 
 her nature demanded a corresponding quality of 
 vigor in any expression. The productions of a cer- 
 tain American story-writer whose work is, in its way, 
 fine, were always obnoxious to Miss Field, who had 
 little patience with the elaborate carving of cherry- 
 stones. Still, as a rule, her literary criticism is of 
 value, its defect being, perchance, in that it is more 
 trenchant than sympathetic. 
 
 Her Shakespearian criticism is a classic. In her 
 own lofty and heroic temperament she intuitively 
 responded to the greatest of English poets, whom 
 she loved with an absolute devotion. A criticism 
 running through three numbers of the "Atlantic 
 Monthly," on " The Hamlets of the Stage," is one 
 of the most valuable contributions to modern dra- 
 matic literature. In it she compares the long line 
 of actors who have played this r6Ie, and speaks of 
 the Hamlet of Edwin Booth as one of rare grace and 
 tenderness, of an electric swiftness, and an even more 
 even, finished, and scholarly beauty than that of the 
 elder Booth. Another paper in the " Atlantic," " A 
 Conversation on the Stage," is one of the keenest 
 critical insight, in dialogue form, full of esprit and 
 
 sparkle. 
 
 Among many letters from authors are the follow- 
 ing from Miss Phelps, now Mrs. Herbert D. Ward. 
 In reference to Miss Field's criticism on her " Gates 
 Ajar" she writes : — 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — Thank you; you have spoken 
 some very pleasant words about my book. I certainly was 
 very much in earnest about it, and it is pleasant to find 
 earnest readers. I am in haste, but 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. 
 
164 Kate Field 
 
 In reply to a question of Miss Field's regarding the 
 story called " The Day of My Death," Miss Phelps 
 replies : — 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — The phenomena recorded in the 
 story occurred, every one, about fifteen years ago, in the 
 house of a friend of mine, — an honorable Christian gentle- 
 man. Testimony sufficient " to hang a regiment," he says, 
 could be brought to sustain his individual witness. I never 
 saw the manifestations myself; but I believe in the fact of 
 their occurrence precisely on the principle by which I be- 
 lieve in the pyramids of Egypt ; and am, 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. 
 
 About this time Miss Field discovered her gift in 
 the writing of comediettas, which she afterward de- 
 veloped to a marked degree. She began by trans- 
 lating little plays from the French and Italian. One 
 of the latter, from the Italian of Baron Cosenza, a 
 little comedy in five acts, she translated under the 
 title of " Mad on Purpose; " and it had some little 
 vogue as it was played by Adelaide Ristori, who 
 impersonated the character of Novina, while her 
 daughter, Bianca del Grillo, appeared as Mademoi- 
 selle Cristina. 
 
 It was in 1866 that Madame Ristori (the Marchesa 
 del Grillo) first visited America, and this event inau- 
 gurated for Kate Field her distinctive work as a dra- 
 matic critic, which became a leading feature among 
 all the varied achievements of her after life. It is 
 impressive to see how when a great work is prepared 
 for an individual in the future that he is meantime 
 being prepared for the work. A life that has been 
 nobly lived looks in retrospect almost like a mosaic. 
 
Lecturing and Writing 165 
 
 so marvellously do the parts fit into one perfect whole. 
 The pattern of life, Phillips Brooks used to say, is 
 on the divine side, and Emerson, too, affirms that 
 
 " There is no great and no small, 
 To the soul that knoweth all." 
 
 Miss Field's life in Italy; the strong impression 
 that Madame Ristori had made upon her when first 
 hearing the great tragedienne in Leghorn ; her own 
 temperamental magnetism toward the stage and her 
 familiarity with the Italian tongue, all combined 
 to make her the ideal critic for the appearance of 
 the ItaHan actress. The New York " Tribune " at 
 once engaged her for the Ristori season in New 
 York ; and during Madame Ristori's playing in Phil- 
 adelphia and in Boston, a leading journal of each 
 city secured Miss Field as the critic of what was 
 justly felt to be an important dramatic event. Miss 
 Field's criticism on each appearance were articles of 
 from one to three columns in length, and were ex- 
 haustive in their noble presentation of the art of act- 
 ing and of the genius of Ristori. Miss Field had the 
 traditions of the drama at her finger-tips. She had 
 the most intuitive grasp and recognition of dramatic 
 quality. Beside her voluminous newspaper criticism 
 of Ristori, she wrote the paper on the great Italian 
 artist which appeared in the " Atlantic Monthly " for 
 April of 1867, and which contains such passages as 
 these : — 
 
 " There is no surer test of grandeur of character than a 
 readiness to acknowledge and respect the individuality of 
 all God's creatures. This is the crowning grace that brings 
 Ristori so near to the hearts of her friends. Her social 
 ease makes you wonder how she can ever be transformed 
 
1 66 Kate Field 
 
 into the classic statue of Mirra. Rachel was so complete 
 a Pagan princess — ' Elle pose toujours,' said her best 
 friends — that she never succeeded in being herself. Both 
 she and Siddons were first artists and then women. Ris- 
 tori is first a woman and then an artist. . . . 
 
 " It is not enough that an actor know how to wear a 
 toga. To live in his own age, and love and laugh with his 
 contemporaries, is as necessary as to suffer, hate, and mur- 
 der after the fashion of the past." 
 
 And of her Lady Macbeth, Miss Field wrote : — 
 
 " Ristori's sleep-walking scene is a wonderfully solemn 
 vision of retribution. The twenty-two lines of the drama- 
 tist become a five -act tragedy. It is the thrilling, terrible 
 picture of a guilty, heart-broken woman on her way to the 
 grave. There is none of the horrible and conventional 
 gasping, but just sufficient hardness of breathing to denote 
 somnambulism and approaching dissolution ; for Ristori evi- 
 dently, and we think properly, believes that Lady Macbeth 
 died by no suicidal hand, but of that disease to which none 
 could minister. There never was such a washing of the 
 hands ; there never was queen so quickly transformed into 
 a spirit of Dante's hell ; there never was more fearful re- 
 morse, more pitiful, heart-rending sighs. And her final 
 exit is the fatal flicker before the going out of the candle ; 
 it is the summing up of all the horrible past, a concentra- 
 tion of superhuman power into one moment of superb ac- 
 tion. Ignorant of English, with no knowledge of Macbeth 
 but what she has obtained from an inferior translation, 
 Ristori has made the part of Lady Macbeth her own. It is 
 the interpretation of Shakespeare's soul." 
 
 This paper on Ristori was followed by others of a 
 dramatic cast, -— all of which Miss Field contributed 
 to the " Atlantic Monthly," — as " The Hamlets of 
 
Lecturing and Writing 167 
 
 the Stage," " Fechter as Hamlet," a biographical 
 paper on Fechter, and the " Conversation on the 
 Stage " as heretofore mentioned. 
 
 Press and magazine work and social enjoyments 
 filled the time. The summer of 1865 was passed by 
 Kate in Newport, her mother being among the north- 
 ern hills ; and in one letter to her Kate speaks of a 
 delightful tea at Mrs. Howe's, where she met Hamil- 
 ton Wild, the artist, and another friend whom she 
 had last seen at the Brownings' in Florence. Colonel 
 Higginson was also present, and the Storys from 
 Rome were, she noted, expected the next week. Mr. 
 Caryll Coleman, the artist, and Mr. Vedder both ap- 
 peared at Newport at this time, and the old friends 
 made excursions to Paradise, and walked on cliffs, 
 and enjoyed that old, poetic Newport which is now 
 so rapidly disappearing in its transformation into 
 a city of palaces whose splendor more than rivals 
 the courts of Europe. Colonel Higginson was the 
 always delightful presence ; Miss Sarah Freeman 
 Clarke, the artist sister of James Freeman Clarke, 
 had a cottage at Newport that summer, and had as 
 her guest Miss Margaret Foley, the sculptor. Miss 
 Lina Warren, a charming New York girl, now Ma- 
 dame George Nonn^, of Paris, was one of Kate's 
 nearest friends, and the two girls had a boat called 
 " The Mermaid," in which they rowed. Miss War- 
 ren was the captain and Miss Field the mate, and 
 the former being asked one day if she were not afraid 
 of her companion, — for there was a vein of hauteur 
 and of sarcasm in Kate which sometimes overawed 
 the unwary, — to this question Miss Warren replied 
 that she was not in the least afraid, for if Miss Field, 
 as the mate, showed any signs of insubordination, 
 
1 68 Kate Field 
 
 she, as the captain, would throw her overboard at 
 once. The Frothinghams were also among the New- 
 port visitors that summer, and of Mr. Frothingham — 
 whom, in later years, Kate was to know so well 
 
 — she writes to her mother : " He is very sweet 
 in his manner and is a charming and cultivated 
 companion." 
 
 Mrs. Field's noble counsel to her daughter relates 
 itself, in a universal way, to life. " Remember you 
 cannot be too careful, my child," she writes; "the 
 world is not always just or kind. Yet never say fail ! 
 The world is before you. You are blessed with more 
 ability than the average, and you must be true to 
 yourself, and to all that your dear father would wish 
 you to be. Oh, my child, how I long to be with you ! 
 But we must sacrifice our feelings, and be prudent, 
 and simply do the best we can in our circumstances." 
 
 Kate already felt indeed the responsibility of care- 
 taker. She was earning money, and to her mother 
 she writes : — 
 
 " I made you no Christmas present and now I make 
 it — the product of two letters to the 'Post,' twenty dollars, 
 
 — and I want you to spend it on excursions. First, I want 
 you to go to the top of Mount Washington, if it takes that 
 and more still to do it." 
 
 Miss Field was always a social favorite, being ac- 
 corded a certain distinction wherever she went. Her 
 little vein of hauteur could not conceal the kindest 
 heart in the world; she was sincere and truthful to 
 the very highest degree, and always perfectly honest 
 with herself and with others. -There are persons 
 who cannot bear the honest daylight of sincerity 
 and prefer contemplating themselves in some arti- 
 
Lecturing and Writing 169 
 
 ficial atmosphere of hypocrisy more flattering to 
 their self-love. To such persons as these a sincere, 
 straightforward nature is an offence. Yet, happily, 
 this class of humanity does not abound, and the 
 sincerity of the good-will of the world in general 
 is more conspicuous than is the reverse. 
 
 " There are nettles everywhere, 
 But smooth green grasses are more common still." 
 
 The social world in which Kate mingled was ex- 
 ceptional in its grouping of noble and remarkable per- 
 sonalities, a society unsurpassed in character and bril- 
 liancy, to whose stimulus she was keenly responsive. 
 
 Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple, meeting her often and 
 knowing her with that inner clairvoyance of kindred 
 natures, gives many a vivid word-picture of Kate 
 through these years of her young womanhood. " I 
 shall never forget," says Mrs. Whipple, " the sense 
 of freedom and largeness of life that she gave me. 
 The fine poise of her head, with a wealth of cluster- 
 ing auburn curls drawn back from the broad, fair 
 brow; the changeful, luminous blue eyes, — now 
 starry and sparkling, now full of serene calm that 
 indicated depths upon depths of feeling and thought. 
 She used to come to our Sunday evenings," con- 
 tinued Mrs. Whipple, " in a little pale blue silk gown 
 under white lace, with Mar6chal Neil roses, of which 
 she was very fond, in her belt. There would often 
 be with us Mr. Emerson, Mr. Longfellow, Mrs. Howe, 
 Louisa Alcott, Prof. Benjamin Peirce who was our 
 great friend, Charles Sumner, and other interesting 
 people of the time, and Kate was a personage among 
 them, young as she was. Clever men liked to talk 
 with" her and draw her out. Edwin, my husband, was 
 always very fond of her." 
 
1 70 Kate Field 
 
 Miss Sarah Holland Adams, the distinguished 
 German scholar and translator, and a sister of Mrs. 
 James T. Fields, says of Kate at this time: "She 
 was beautiful, with her mass of flying curls, and 
 her exquisite voice, and then her brilliant intellect 
 charmed every one." 
 
 In the early days of the April of 1868 Miss Field 
 was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. James T. Fields for 
 a little time, and from their house she thus writes to 
 her mother in New York: — 
 
 " Here I 've been ever since Saturday evening, but there 
 was no Charles Dickens to dinner. Of course not. Of 
 course he had to have a dreadful cold and go to bed. 
 Such is life. We were dreadfully disappointed. Mr. 
 Dickens has a serious attack of catarrh and is obhged to 
 reserve all his strength for reading. Perhaps I may meet 
 him, but now I doubt. However, as the Fields go on to 
 New York with him, there may be a chance there. Friday 
 p. M. I attended a concert ; Friday evening I never heard 
 Dickens read Doctor Marigold so well. The audience was 
 the most sympathetic that I have seen, and Dickens was 
 inspired, although he had been ill in bed all day. Satur- 
 day Mr. Osgood gave me some items. Loring thinks very 
 favorably of the Pacific Railroad, and I have written to 
 Lombard. Mr. Fields has given me items and books about 
 Dickens, but I am afraid I cannot write much. 
 
 " Yesterday, of course it snowed, and to-day is wintry, 
 cold, and blowy, although fine overhead. Last evening 
 we took tea at Mrs. Beal's (Mrs. Field's sister), who lives 
 in a fine house on Beacon Street, and after tea we went 
 to Josiah Quincy's. There the Women's Club was dis- 
 cussed, and it meets with great favor, I assure you. 
 Everybody thanks me for my book on Dickens. All read 
 it." 
 
Lecturing and Writing 171 
 
 Soon after this a farewell concert was given to 
 Miss Adelaide Phillipps before her departure for 
 Europe in June of '68, Signor Bendelari, the 
 famous musician of the day, conducting it. The 
 programme was made up from Mendelssohn, Handel, 
 and other great composers, and then one number of 
 Signor Bendelari's own composition, a " laughing 
 song," which Miss Field sang, and also " Auld Robin 
 Grey," — which she rendered with pathos that 
 brought tears to the eye. Miss Phillipps herself ap- 
 peared in two numbers, from Handel and Schubert, 
 and again with Madame Gazzaniga in the Sappho 
 duet from Pacini. While Miss Field had definitely re- 
 nounced her girlish ambition for the lyric stage, she 
 was yet a musical artist of a high order. She sang 
 classical music con spirito ; and in ballads, such as 
 " Twickenham Ferry " and " Kathleen Mavourneen," 
 her voice had a wonderfully sympathetic timbre that 
 entranced the hearer. 
 
 In the mean time her friends abroad did not forget 
 her throughout these years. Under date of May 5, 
 1866, from Warwick Crescent, No. 19, London, Rob- 
 ert Browning wrote to Kate : — 
 
 Dear Kate Field, — Do let me ask you, please, in re- 
 gard to old times, when I might have done it, but did not. 
 I know well enough that there is great stupidity in this way 
 of mine, this putting off a thing because I hoped and felt 
 some other thing as here, for had you not asked for some 
 photographs, which I suppose I could soon find, and in 
 condition to get, I should have thanked you at once, as I do 
 now indeed, and with all my heart. But the review article 
 is wavering and indistinct in my mind now, and though it 
 is inside a drawer of this table where I write, I cannot 
 bring myself to look at it again, not from a motive which is 
 
1 72 Kate Field 
 
 disparaging to you, as I am sure you understand. The 
 general impression is enough for me, and enough for you 
 also, if you care in the least about how I feel toward you. 
 
 The boy has certainly the likeness to which you refer, 
 and an absolute sameness almost in feature as well as look 
 with certain old portraits here older and younger. There 
 is not a trace of me in him, thank God. 
 
 I know that dear, teasing Isa and how she won't answer 
 your questions, but sometimes for compensation she tells 
 you what you never asked for, and though I always or very 
 often ask about you, yet I think it only may have been in 
 reply about the price of Italian stock that she lately de- 
 scribed to me a photograph of you yourself, and how you 
 were, . . . what, ever and ever, and moreover how you were 
 your old self with additions, which, to be sure, I don't 
 require. 
 
 Give my true regard to your mother, and thank her for 
 her goodness in remembering me. How you can give a 
 thought, even to old friends, is strange in this terrible state 
 of yours. But I wrote only to have a cordial minute's chat 
 with you in the balcony, looking for fireflies in the garden 
 under between us and the slanting Pitti-fagade. Now that 
 it 's warm and May-like in Florence, and I won't spoil it 
 now it 's ended. God bless you. 
 
 Yours ever truly, 
 
 R. B. 
 
 Again, Mr. Vedder wrote : — 
 
 Rome, June 4, 1867. 
 Dearest Kate, — You are the best and truest woman I 
 ever knew. I am trying to leave Rome for the country and 
 work. Your letters have been read over and over again. 
 You did just the right thing at the right time. It is need- 
 less to say how much obliged, nor how much I thank you, 
 nor how noble I think you. I have written this letter to 
 
Lecturing and Writing 173 
 
 Mr. and send it through you, thinking you would wish it 
 
 so. If I can only manage to paint the many things I have 
 on hand (exhibition pictures) and have a number finished 
 in my studio for the winter season, I shall do splendidly. I 
 am full of hope, but impatient. You suggest more work 
 than any one man can do and do well. Indeed, you are a 
 friend, a better one than I deserve, but I will try and be 
 somewhat worthy of you. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Elihu Vedder. 
 
 Miss Field's diary of 1868 offers a condensed 
 commentary of the times, and from it the following 
 extracts are presented. 
 
 January i, 1868. Last night Dickens read "David 
 Copperfield " and "Bob Sawyer's Party" with great effect. 
 During the afternoon I became possessed with the idea to 
 present the Great Charles with a New Year's offering in the 
 shape of a bouquet. Told Fanny Ashley of my idea. She 
 seconded it warmly, and out we strolled in search of flowers. 
 Dashing wildly into every flower-shop in Broadway, and 
 being told that only previous orders would be fulfilled, our 
 ardor received numerous shocks, but finally we discovered 
 a young German who had violets for sale, and who would 
 arrange them in a pretty little basket. 
 
 " It is impossible to make the bouquet now. I '11 send 
 them to you. " 
 
 " I want them now." (It was then 5 o'clock.) 
 
 " I '11 let you have the basket by 7 o'clock." 
 
 " No, I want it now." 
 
 " I '11 send it at 6 o'clock." 
 
 "That will not answer." 
 
 "In half an hour." 
 
 " Now or never." 
 
1 74 Kate Field 
 
 "Well, then, now," replied the young German, desper- 
 ately, and away he went at the flowers. Fanny and I sat 
 on the end of a box and watched the German and the 
 shades of night stealing upon us. At last the basket was 
 completed, and off we sped. 
 
 Upon arriving home I began to feel nervous, and tortured 
 myself by imagining that Mr. Dickens might think me very 
 impertinent. But finally I said to myself, " If Mr. Dickens 
 fails to appreciate my motive in offering that basket, so 
 much the worse for him, and so much the better for me, as 
 I shall then know what manner of man he is. On the con- 
 trary, if he receives it in a proper spirit, the flowers will 
 prove him to be all my fancy paints him." Thus inspired, 
 I tied some pretty ribbons of red, white, and blue around 
 the handle of the basket, and on one end I fastened a card 
 on which I wrote, " Wishing Mr. Dickens ' A Happy New 
 Year ' in America. ' God bless him ' — every one." 
 
 Griswold and I went off to Steinway Hall together, I 
 wondering whether I had bought an elephant and what I 
 should do with it upon reaching the hall. Fortune, how- 
 ever, favors the brave. I had no sooner entered the build- 
 ing than Mr. Dolby came to me, saying, — 
 
 " I 've a message for you from Dickens." 
 
 " Indeed ! Pray, what can it be? " 
 
 " I asked him whether he saw you in the audience, to 
 which he replied, 'See her? Yes, God bless her ! She 's 
 the best audience I ever had.' " 
 
 Of course I was surprised to hear that Mr. Dickens had 
 noticed a person whom he did not know and could not 
 have ever heard of; but without confessing as much I an- 
 swered, "And /have something for Mr. Dickens.'' 
 
 "Really?" 
 
 " Yes, I 've a little nameless basket of violets that I want 
 to have placed on his desk unknown to him. Won't you 
 please see that this is done ? " 
 
Lecturing and Writing 175 
 
 Mr. Dolby hesitated : he thought it was too late for any- 
 thing to go upon the platform ; that it would be better to 
 carry the basket directly to Mr. Dickens, and, moreover, 
 tell him whom it came from, as he would be infinitely more 
 pleased to know the giver. After much demurring, I 
 allowed Mr. Dolby to have his own way, and Griswold and 
 I took our seats, — on the left side, two from the front. 
 
 Great was my horror when, the gas being all on and the 
 reading about to begin, I saw a man mount the platform 
 and deposit my basket on the desk, letting the card fall in 
 front, so that those on the front seat could read it. I felt 
 as if the eyes of Europe were upon me and was quite ready 
 to go through the floor. Then out came Mr. Dickens, 
 ^Txii&sxg profusely, and when he reached the desk what did 
 he do but pat the basket as if to assure me that it was all 
 right, and give a pleasant nod to Dolby behind the screen, 
 as if to say, " I hope Miss Field is pleased with my way of 
 receiving her flowers." Then he read " David Copper- 
 field " finely, and at the conclusion of Part I. he bore off 
 the violets. 
 
 At the close of the readings he addressed the audience 
 thus : — 
 
 " Ladies and gentlemen, from my heart of hearts I wish 
 you a happy, happy New Year." 
 
 " My flowers did that," I said to Griswold. " It is the 
 first speech he has made in America." I came home in 
 great glee. 
 
 January 2. Heard Dickens in Doctor Marigold for 
 the first time. I was dehghted. 
 
 January 3. Adelaide PhilHpps went with me to hear 
 Dickens in "Christmas Carol." Going up the hall steps 
 Mr. Dolby gave nae a letter from Mr. Dickens. It is 
 charming. The most neatly worded note I ever read. I 
 feel one inch taller. It is very sweet of Mr. Dickens to 
 take so much notice of my little offering. 
 
1 76 Kate Field 
 
 January 4. Lippincott published my " Ristori as 
 Marie Antoinette." " The Philadelphia Press " calls it the 
 sensation article. "The Tribune " stigmatizes it as written 
 in bad Carlylean. Thank you, Mr. Ripley, I know nothing 
 of Carlyle, so must be naturally depraved. That article 
 will live to be noticed yet, if I ever succeed in putting my 
 "Ristori " together in book form. 
 
 " The Public Spirit " prints my first story, — " Love and 
 War." Springfield " Republican " copies it entire. 
 
 January 9. Went with John Russell Young of "The 
 Tribune " to hear Mr. Dickens a second time in Doctor 
 Marigold, — was more pleased than ever. Had seats 
 immediately in front. Caught Mr. D.'s eye on one occa- 
 sion, and felt that he saw way down into my boots. His 
 eye is a dissecting knife. Took supper with Mr. Young at 
 The Westminster. Had a long talk about newspapers and 
 people. 
 
 January 18. My letter on Dickens in Springfield 
 " Republican." 
 
 January 19. Sunday. Ristori celebrated her fete with 
 a dinner to her company, and a proverbe, " Un Mari dans 
 du coton," acted very cleverly by Bianca and Giorgio. 
 Giorgio was particularly good, — as easy as an old stager. 
 Ristori stood behind a screen, and directed everything with 
 as much interest as if worlds depended upon it. My pres- 
 ent was two copies of " Marie Antoinette " article, — one for 
 Ristori and one for Giacommetti. 
 
 January 22. Ristori sent me an exquisite full-length 
 photograph of herself (French), on which is written, "To 
 my dear and noble friend, Kate Field. A remembrance 
 of sincere affection, from her true and grateful friend, Ade- 
 laide Ristori del Grillo." I prize this highly. For Ristori 
 to acknowledge herself grateful is more than I expected. 
 Artists do not often make this confession and concession. 
 Took leave of Ristori to-day. She is tired and ill, but 
 always good and uncomplaining. 
 
Lecturing and Writing 177 
 
 January 23. Ristori sailed for Havana with all her 
 troupe. Success and glory attend La Diva. 
 
 January 27. My article on Adelaide Phillipps ap- 
 peared in "The Tribune." Has excited much remark. 
 Hope it will do her good. No critic has ever done justice 
 to her genius. 
 
 January 29. Addie made her debut in "La Favorita," 
 — a great success. Her acting and singing beautiful. The 
 operatic sensation of many years, from an artistic point of 
 view. Of course, Strakosch won't let the critics praise her 
 as she ought to be praised. What a horrible life it is to be 
 before the public, and at the mercy of unprincipled man- 
 agers and ignorant or vile critics ! How I wish I had con- 
 trol of an art organ ! I 'd have the truth told. 
 
 February 3. Wrote Dickens. Dined at Mrs. Botta's 
 virith Helen Hunt and Mr. C. W. ElHott, the author. I in- 
 vited them all to opera ; also the Frothinghams. Addie in 
 " Don Pasquale." All were pleased. 
 
 February 4. Wrote on " Pen Photographs of Dickens," 
 — the hardest task I ever set myself. Hope they will repay 
 me for the trouble when issued by Loring. Shall I ever be 
 independent in pocket ? 
 
 February 5. Breakfasted at Mrs. Botta's with George 
 Ripley, Helen Hunt, Major De Forrest, Mrs. Elliott, a 
 Frenchman, and Du Chaillu. Mr. Ripley was my right- 
 hand man, and by far the most brilliant person at the table. 
 Returned home at 2 p. m. Wrote on Dickens. 
 
 February 10. Wrote on Dickens. Will finish to-morrow, 
 thank Heaven ! Then I '11 stop writing for a fortnight and 
 breathe. Oh, if I could only go to Europe, take care of 
 my physique, and study ! Heaven's will be done ! I must 
 not complain. It will all be made clear one of these days. 
 
 February 13. "The Public Spirit " for this month pub- 
 lishes ray essay on " The Wisdom of Masks." I see that 
 the newspapers have made extracts from it I wonder if I 
 
 12 
 
1 78 Kate Field 
 
 ever shall write anything to be proud of ? Life is a curious 
 puzzle to me. 
 
 February 15. Notice in "The Tribune" of my book. 
 Calls me " brilliant," and my pen " facile." No compli- 
 ment, because everybody is called brilliant and facile now- 
 adays. 
 
 February 18. Received a letter from Mr. Osgood say- 
 ing Mr. Dickens had seen a notice of my book about his 
 Readings in " The Tribune," and proposed to have it re- 
 published by Chapman and Hall, in England, if I would 
 furnish advance sheets. I have written to Loring. Amazed 
 at Dickens's proposal. 
 
 February 19. Correcting proof. Telegram from Loring. 
 Won't delay publication, but will send me a second set of 
 proof. Telegraphed to Osgood at Providence. 
 
 February 21. Mr. Osgood called at 9.30 about the " Pen 
 Photographs." Said book was smaller than Mr. Dickens 
 supposed it would be, and it might be too late to obtain 
 English revenue. Decided to let Mr. Dickens be the 
 judge. Corrected proof and left it with Mr. Osgood. 
 
 February 2^. Called on Adelaide Phillipps. Long talk. 
 She had a great ovation in " La Favorita " yesterday, and 
 at the Philharmonic in the evening at Brooklyn. Wrote in 
 the evening. 
 
 February 24. Awful day. As blue as any indigo. 
 Could n't fix my mind on anything. Began Lockhart's 
 " Life of Scott." 
 
 February 25. Saw " Norma" in evening. 
 
 February 26. Lippincott will give me three or four 
 pages, and ^25 for my Kemble article. Sha'n't have it. 
 
 February 27. Mr. Fields will take my article on "The 
 Tombs." Is doubtful about Kemble. Dickens praises 
 my "Photographs" very warmly. So do Boston papers. 
 Mr. Dickens says it is too late for English republication. 
 Delighted that he is pleased. 
 
Lecturing and Writing 1 79 
 
 February 28. Mr. Frothingham called. He will write an 
 article on "Photographs" for "The Nation," if editor per- 
 mits. Busy mailing " Photographs " to diiferent persons. 
 The book is a success. Have received complimentary 
 letters. Loring wants me to enlarge it. 
 
 March 2. Went to gymnasium. Heard Mrs. Kemble 
 read " Coriolanus " in evening. 
 
 March 3. Mrs. Kemble in " Midsummer Night's 
 Dream." Delighted with Bottom. Voice beautifully mu- 
 sical in some of the poems. 
 
 March 4. Loring wants me to enlarge my Dickens 
 book. Will do so at ^10 per page. Had I foreseen its 
 success, I would have fought for a percentage on sale. He 
 will make money, and I not a cent. Alas ! Fanny Kemble 
 in " Tempest," — not good in Prospero and Miranda. Great 
 in Caliban. Excellent in Stephano. 
 
 March 5. A very flattering notice of my book in Bos- 
 ton "Transcript; " also in Portland "Press." 
 
 March 6. Forney's "Press " gives me more than a col- 
 umn of praise. Amende honorable ! Called on Mrs. Kelley. 
 Gave her $\o to pay her rent. They say she makes des- 
 perate efforts to get down on her knees and pray for me, 
 but she fails from physical inability. Poor woman ! And I 
 have done so little. 
 
 March 7. Springfield " Republican " praises my book. 
 Read " Lear." Heard Mrs. Kemble read it in afternoon. 
 Was exceedingly fine in some portions. Fails in Kent. 
 
 March 9. Fanny Kemble in " Julius Caesar." Fine, but 
 open to criticism. Brutus was not Brutus. But it is a ter- 
 rible test. 
 
 March 10. Wrote letters, read Boaden's "Siddons." 
 Note from Mr. Osgood, suggesting calling at his office. 
 Down there p. m. Had a charming talk about my book, 
 Dickens, etc. I like Mr. Osgood. He is true, manly, and 
 considerate. 
 
1 80 Kate Field 
 
 March 1 1. " Herald " has flattering notice of my book. 
 Heard Fanny Kemble read " Merry Wives " in the after- 
 noon. Perfectly delighted with every character, Falstaff 
 excepted. 
 
 March 12. It appears that it was with greatest difficulty 
 that Mr. Phillips could arrange an article about my Dickens 
 book, that Bennett hates Dickens, and it was only by pecu- 
 liar wording that the notice was allowed insertion. 
 
 March 13. Heard Fanny Kemble in "Measure for 
 Measure." Cuts immensely. Reads well, but gave false 
 interpretation of Isabella. She does not psychologize me 
 as Dickens does. 
 
 March 15. Carrie Rosencrans spent afternoon with me, 
 and told me about the Gilmore drama. 
 
 Wish I could travel. 
 
 March 18. Dr. Barker delighted with "Pen Photo- 
 graphs." Colonel Higginson writes to " Independent " that 
 I have " extraordinary talents." Hurrah ! I '11 try and do 
 something. 
 
 April 21. Worst snowstorm of the season. Did not stir 
 out. Read. 
 
 April 22. New Orleans " Crescent " says ray book is an 
 insidious attempt to injure the genius of Dickens. De 
 Gustibus. Called on Carrie Rosencrans P. m. Went with 
 Addle Phillipps to concert in evening. Gazzaniga bad. 
 
 April 23. Mrs. Fields asks me to visit her in Boston. 
 Ay, ay ! Read and wrote letters. 
 
 April 24. Wrote letters. Finished " Martin Chuzzlewit." 
 Dined at Mrs. S. G. Ward's. Large party. Young Ward 
 for my companion. Is a strange, but agreeable and well- 
 educated fellow. Like him. A young Frenchman came 
 to me without introduction, and we had a sympathetic tete- 
 a-tete. 
 
 April 21. Party at Mrs. Ripley's; played, etc. Addie 
 Phillipps sang. Give me the voice for soul. Mrs. Henry 
 
Lecturing and Writing 1 8 1 
 
 Field has promised to join our Woman's Club. Hassard of 
 " The Tribune " present. At last he has written against the 
 indecencies of Oifenbach. I thanked him. 
 
 April 28. Read "Nicholas Nickleby." Henry Sayles 
 of Boston called. 
 
 May I. Went to Boston. Got tickets for Dickens' 
 Readings. 
 
 The Longs called. Visit to State's Prison. Intensely in- 
 teresting. Shall make article out of it, I hope. The 
 Warden polite. 
 
 Read " David Copperfield." Saw Loring. Fall into my 
 idea of writing about Pacific Railroad Excursion. Dickens 
 in Doctor Marigold and Mrs. Gamp (first time of Mrs. G.). 
 The finest audience I ever felt. 
 
 Called on Mrs. Claflin, who says I must visit her. Met 
 Mr. Osgood by appointment. He is a noble fellow. Told 
 me things about Dickens. Came to visit Mr. and Mrs. 
 Fields. 
 
 A horrible snowstorm. In house all day. Browsed among 
 Mr. Fields' books. Copied extracts about Dickens. Took 
 tea at Mrs. Beals'. Passed evening at the Quincys'. All 
 receive my idea of Women's Club most cordially. Mrs. 
 Fields will support it. Am to meet the Boston Women's 
 Club just started in idea. 
 
 Blowing a hurricane all day. Thought I was out at sea. 
 Read "David Copperfield" all day, and heard Mrs. Fields 
 talk about Dickens. David Copperfield and Bob Sawyer in 
 the evening. Dickens weak owing to illness and exhaus- 
 tion. Dolby wants him to stop reading, so do Longfellow, 
 Charles Eliot Norton, and Fields. 
 
 By way of variety, it rained pitchforks. Did not stir out. 
 Copied articles about Dickens. Lombard says I can go to 
 the Pacific. Dickens read Dombey and Pickwick. Pre- 
 sented to him after reading. Said he was delighted to 
 make my acquaintance. I replied that I owed him so 
 
1 82 Kate Field 
 
 heavy a debt that I never should be able to pay the in- 
 terest. "Then I will give you a receipt in full," he replied. 
 Dickens last night. Dr. Marigold and Mrs. Gamp. 
 Great house and great enthusiasm. Mrs. Wales, florist, 
 sent an exquisite basket of flowers; Mrs. Fields a palm 
 leaf inlaid with flowers ; I a lovely little basket of pansies. 
 On the card I wrote : — 
 
 A little western flower 
 That's for thoughts. 
 
 It was a memorable night. 
 
 Copied Thackeray on Dickens. Took leave of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Fields and went to Mrs. Claflin's. Took tea at Dr. 
 Angell's, and made the acquaintance of Perabo, — a positive, 
 entete fellow, who plays remarkably well, and who made me 
 dream sadly as he passed from one Schubert composition to 
 another. Schubert is divine. 
 
 A dreadful snowstorm. Mr. Dickens and the Fields went 
 on to New York. Also Addie Phillipps. Mrs. Claflin invited 
 me to go to Washington for impeachment trial. Shall do 
 my best to go. Must work, though. 
 
 Ordered a beautiful laurel wreath for Dickens last night. 
 Received an engraving from Dickens, on which he had 
 written. 
 
 Left for Washington with the Claflins. Saw the "Russia" 
 getting up steam, and bade Dickens "Godspeed" as I 
 crossed the ferry. 
 
 May 23. Beautiful day ; first taste of spring. Went to 
 Capitol. Not captivated by my first glimpse of Washington. 
 Saw Congress assembled; a clever-looking body of men. 
 Met Henry Wilson. 
 
 May 24. Drove out to General Lee's house, Arlington 
 Heights. Evening at Senator Pomeroy's. Met Stanton, 
 Butler (a sharp, clever lawyer). General Howard (good), 
 Colfax (an amiable politician) , Senator Wilson, and others. 
 
Lecturing and Writing 183 
 
 May 25. Went to Capitol. Heard Grossbeck. No 
 orator, and I couldn't endure the atmosphere. Met An- 
 thony TroUope. Same as ever. Interviews with General 
 Banks, Spofford, and Stillson. Latter took me over build- 
 ing and to Vinnie Ream's studio. TroUope called in even- 
 ing. Met Chief- Justice Chase, a fine-looking man. 
 
 Sunday, May 26. Wrote all the morning. Called on the 
 Pomeroys. 
 
 May 2 7. Visited the White House ; like a big hotel, then 
 to Treasury ; Spinner very polite and showed me everything. 
 Had a charming visit at Charles Sumner's house ; he was 
 very cordial. Then to Capitol. Stevens and Williams 
 spoke. Met Anthony TroUope again. Walked over Patent 
 Office. Friends at dinner. The Boutwells called. 
 
 May 28. Anthony TroUope caUed and went with us to 
 Capitol. WilUams finished, and Evarts began his speech 
 after skirmish between Butler and Nelson. Took my 
 last breath of Capitol air. The Spofifords and Mary Clemmer 
 Ames caUed. Left for New York in night train. Not one 
 wink of sleep. Sleeping cars, are they ? 
 
 May 29. Heard Mrs. Kemble read " As You Like It." 
 Touchstone, Audrey, and Jacques admirable. Rosalind 
 affected. CaUed on Addie PhiUipps. Did not get to bed 
 until midnight. Tired to death. 
 
 May 30. Called on Ristori. Found her tired and worn. 
 Great season in Cuba. In the evening, Fanny Kemble in 
 Mary Stuart. Bored to death. She was exaggerated and 
 stagy. No idea of Mary Stuart's character. 
 
 June 3. Visited Mrs. Botta. 
 
 June 6. Mr. TroUope came and remained an hour or 
 two. Asked me to write a story for his St. Paul magazine. 
 If I can it wiU be a feather in my cap. If I can't — well, 
 we shall see. 
 
 June 7. Saw Ristori in Medea and Teresa. Good 
 house. The play does not wear. 
 
184 Kate Field 
 
 June 9. Ristori's last appearance. Goes to Boston. I 
 
 called on Mrs. to consult about the club, but I saw there 
 
 could be no understanding between us. We belong to 
 different spheres. 
 
 June 24. Ristori has returned. She says she is over- 
 worked, and will not act after next season. 
 
 This summer of 1868 Kate passed largely at the 
 Isles of Shoals, and on September 3 she chron- 
 icles : " My first letter on the Isles of Shoals in 
 ' The Tribune ' to-day." 
 
 She soon returned to Newport, and a few days 
 later notes going to a tea-party at Mr. Samuel L. 
 Ward's, driving there with Colonel Higginson and 
 meeting La Farge ; she meets Mr. Lawrence (a 
 son of Sir Henry Lawrence), and other people of 
 note. 
 
 The next day the diary tells of a call from Mr. La 
 Farge and Henry James, Jr., as he was then, the novel- 
 ist, and she records her impressions of his power and' 
 his refined charm of personality. Miss Field's book, 
 called " Pen Photographs of Dickens' Readings " was 
 making quite an enviable success, and Charlotte 
 Cushman wrote to her that the work was the most 
 perfect criticism she had ever seen and urged Miss 
 Field to come and stay with her at Swampscott. In 
 the mean time, another alluring invitation came to 
 Miss Field from Miss Carrie Rosencrans of Glen 
 Falls, N. Y., the Jianch of the artist Vedder. Miss 
 Rosencrans and Miss Field were already warm friends, 
 and Kate records in her diary the wish that she might 
 accept this invitation ; " but I can't," she says, " and 
 they must do their love-making without my moral 
 support." 
 
Lecturing and Writing 185 
 
 Helen Hunt, the poet, who was an habitude and an 
 ardent lover of Newport, was one of the intimate 
 circle in Kate's life at this time. Mr. La Farge had 
 then a studio in Newport, and Miss Field writes in 
 her journal of a very interesting landscape of his 
 called " Paradise." It was in this September at New- 
 port that Miss Field and Mr. Howells first met, and 
 she writes that the young poet " is very sweet in dis- 
 position and so sympathetic." She felt at once that 
 rare charm of Mr. Howells' personality. The Perry 
 monument in Newport was unveiled on October first, 
 and John Russell Young commissioned Miss Field 
 to describe the event for " The Tribune." Thus she 
 was enlarging her field of press work. 
 
 The autumn of 1868 found Mrs. Field and her 
 daughter located for the season at the St. James 
 Hotel in Boston, now the New England Conservatory 
 of Music. Kate hears Wendell Phillips lecture one 
 night on " Events after Grant's Election," and she 
 records : " He was great and suggestive, but not 
 hopeful. The issue is momentous." 
 
 James R. Osgood, the noted Boston publisher, the 
 noble man and the ideal friend, had previously to this 
 time come somewhat into Miss Field's life, and during 
 this season of '68-69 their lifelong friendship was 
 formed. His counsel and influence were most valu- 
 able to Kate, and were always deeply appreciated 
 by her. 
 
 In her " Pen Photographs " Mr. Osgood took a 
 keen interest, and about this time thus wrote to 
 Kate : " Mr. Dickens spoke of the little book very 
 warmly and in terms which show that it pleased him 
 very much." This little volume, now entirely out of 
 print, is, as its title indicates, a series of vividly picto- 
 
i86 Kate Field 
 
 rial impressions of Charles Dickens in his American 
 tour of reading from his own works. 
 
 The days brought to Kate various pleasant expe- 
 riences. One entry in her diary records this inci-r 
 dent. " When in the publishing-house to-day, Mr. 
 Fields called me aside, saying that he had recently 
 looked over my Landor papers, finding them to be 
 very valuable, that I had been paid too little for 
 them, and gave me a check for $88.50, making in 
 all now $300, for the three articles. I could not 
 speak, but I smiled my thanks to him." 
 
 The famous Radical Club of Boston had been 
 recently formed, and it seems that Kate had already 
 written of it in press letters. One entry in her diary 
 notes that she called on the Sargents (Rev. John T. 
 and Mrs. Sargent, at whose house this Club met) and 
 that they were delighted with her report, and told her 
 that Wendell Phillips liked the way in which she 
 opened the subject. Her first letter regarding it 
 begins as follows: — 
 
 " Now that I have been admitted to the inner temple 
 where the gods forge their potent thunderbolts, I wonder 
 how Boston ever existed without the Radical Club, and why 
 it never was born until last year. Last Monday saw the 
 second meeting of the second year in the commodious 
 parlors of those well-known friends of humanity. Rev. and 
 Mrs. John T. Sargent. There were present Emerson, 
 Wasson, Alcott, and Weiss; Morse and Marvin of 'The 
 Radical ; ' the Whipples, W. J. Linton, the most graceful 
 of designers, the young and noble Gen. Edward M. Hallo- 
 well, who fought beside Shaw at Fort Wagner, and took the 
 command left vacant by the death of his friend and colonel ; 
 Julia Ward Howe, Louisa M. Alcott, Louise Chandler 
 Mouiton, and other potentates in literature and society. 
 
Lecturing and Writing 187 
 
 The chair was occupied by John Weiss, who read an essay 
 on the old yet ever young subject of woman, — an essay so 
 beautiful, so earnest, so appreciative of the best womanhood, 
 so generous, so chivalric, that there was not a woman pres- 
 ent whose eyes were not moistened, whose heart was not 
 softened, whose intellect was not inspired, by this tribute 
 from a man to the latent worth of her sex. ' God bless 
 John Weiss and all men Uke him ! ' murmured more than 
 one woman who saw the glorious vista opening for another 
 generation of women. Yes, God bless John Weiss ! If 
 ever there comes a time when all men think as he thinks, 
 every woman who comes short of the possibilities awarded 
 to her will have no excuse to fall back upon but that of 
 total depravity. May that time come quickly, for who is 
 not greater and better for being believed in by the true and 
 good ? Who that sees her niche in the Pantheon will not 
 strive to be a goddess? To attempt to report John 
 Weiss's essay would be as futile as to attempt a description 
 of Beethoven's heroic symphony. It is a heroic symphony, 
 breathing in every page the poetry of humanity, and I 
 could no more tell you what it was like without giving you 
 the whole than I could take the sparkle out of a diamond." 
 
 Mr. Edwin P. Whipple delivered his great lecture 
 on " Jeanne d'Arc " before the Parker Fraternity 
 on the evening of Nov. i, 1868, and Kate records 
 of it : — 
 
 "Mr. Whipple was so earnest, and impressed me so 
 much that I fairly cried, and when I met him and Mrs. 
 Whipple after the lecture I could not speak for the tears. 
 It was noble and suggestive and made one feel strong to 
 do and to dare. All my life I shall henceforth be indebted 
 to Edwin Percy Whipple." 
 
 One of Miss Field's best newspaper articles at this 
 time was one on the new publishing house of Fields, 
 
1 88 Kate Field 
 
 Osgood, and Company for the Springfield "Republi- 
 can." She had breakfasted with Mr. and Mrs. Fields 
 in their home on Charles Street, where the library 
 windows command that Venetian-like view of the 
 river, and afterwards Mr. Fields gave her the data 
 for the article, which was full of information and not 
 without its hints of keen powers of characterization 
 in its setting forth of such strong individualities as 
 Mr. Fields and Mr. Osgood. During the prepara- 
 tion for Miss Field's article on the Fields and Osgood 
 house, Mr. Osgood drove Miss Field out to the 
 University Press in Cambridge, which she went all 
 through with keenest interest in every department. 
 Edwin Booth played an engagement in Boston 
 that winter giving Macbeth to Madame Janauschek's 
 Lady Macbeth, and seats were at a premium and 
 the theatre crowded to the doors. It was in the 
 November of this year ('68) that the idea of lectur- 
 ing first occurred to Kate. Mrs. John T. Sargent 
 thought favorably of the project, and offered to her- 
 self speak to Wendell Phillips who encouraged it. 
 Kate speaks also of a beautiful and helpful conversa- 
 tion with Mr. Whipple. Emerson gave this winter 
 his lecture on " Hospitality," and all Boston heard it 
 with delight. Mrs. Siddons came, bringing a letter 
 of introduction to Miss Field, who heard her read 
 and felt her power, but found her " bad in ' King 
 John.'" The Boston life of 1868-69, on which Miss 
 Field was fairly launched, was as usual deep in 
 interest. Kate attended the Symphony Concerts ; 
 heard Emerson again, this time on " Greatness," 
 and in company with Mrs. Moulton, with whom she 
 took long walks, it seems, discussed poetry and art. 
 Miss Field finds continued interest in the Radical 
 
Lecturing and Writing 1 89 
 
 Club meetings, where she meets the most briUiant 
 group of that day. Of one occasion Mrs. JuHa 
 Ward Howe says : — 
 
 " I can remember neither the topic nor the reader of the 
 essay, but the discussion drifted in the direction of woman 
 suffrage, and John Weiss delivered himself of the follow- 
 ing sentence : ' When men and women shall meet at the 
 polls and he shall hold out his hand and say to her. Give 
 me your quick intuition and accept in turn my ratiocina- 
 tion — ' A ringing laugh here interrupted the speaker. 
 It came from Kate Field." 
 
 There were in Kate's life at this time undercurrents 
 which were as all-determining as they were undreamed 
 of by her friends, and whose nature might be sug- 
 gested by these lines from " Aurora Leigh " : — 
 
 " Even so we let go hands, 
 And in between us rushed the torrent world 
 To blanch our faces like divided rocks 
 And bar forever mutual sight and touch 
 Except through swirl of spray and all that war." 
 
 The 31st of May of this year was a fateful day for 
 Kate Field. It was a warm golden Sunday in New 
 York, and in the morning she called upon Madame 
 Ristori. That afternoon she wrote a letter which, 
 accompanied by a little explanation, will be given in 
 full in these pages. A biography is not a romance. 
 If it exist at all, it exists as a truthful interpretation of 
 the events of the life it commemorates. There was 
 never a woman's life with less in it to conceal than 
 that of Kate Field. She had her share of defects ; 
 she made mistakes; she made errors of judgment, 
 but it still may be said that she was so essentially 
 
I go Kate Field 
 
 noble in her temperament and character that noth- 
 ing ignoble was ever possible to her. This is not 
 saying that hers was a perfect character ; she needs 
 no special pleading, and it is not the wish of her 
 biographer to assume any attitude of the apologist, 
 but rather to present, with the same frank simplicity 
 that characterized Miss Field herself, the story of her 
 life. 
 
 Into this story came more than once the romance 
 of a girl's life, — the approach of love and lovers. 
 She was very fond of the companionship and com- 
 radeship of men. Other things being equal, she 
 enjoyed their society more than she did that of 
 women. This enjoyment was largely a camaraderie 
 quite removed from romantic ideas : but while in 
 Florence there came into her life a young artist 
 between whom and Kate there sprang up a warmer 
 interest than that of friendship. As he died in the 
 same year with herself, it is possible to allude quite 
 frankly to him, and to say that he was the victim 
 of a vacillating temperament. He was one who 
 would and who would not in the same breath. His 
 nature — slow, hesitating, uncertain — was the very 
 reverse of that of the ardent, impulsive girl, whose 
 vehemence of temperament often led her into mis- 
 takes and unwise decisions. For some seven or 
 eight years the friendship between this young artist 
 and Kate Field had persisted through a variety of 
 stages. A large package of his letters are among 
 the voluminous records of her life. And with this 
 little explanation a letter that she wrote to him on the 
 last day of this May will be given in full, as it portrays 
 the strength and clearness of her mental attitude re- 
 garding this influence upon her. She writes : — 
 
Lecturing and Writing 1 9 1 
 
 New York, May 31, 1868. 
 
 It is five months since I received your last letter, and 
 you undoubtedly imagine that my silence has been owing 
 to disgust or indignation. Neither. I was at first disgusted, 
 naturally, and therefore put your letter aside until I should 
 be perfectly cool. The coolness came much before leisure. 
 I have been so engrossed in business, people, and things — 
 Dickens, especially, about whom I have written a series of 
 photographs in book form — that I have never seen the 
 moment until now that I could sit down and tell you my 
 opinion of you and your letter. 
 
 First let me tell you that I renewed our correspondence 
 after a year's cessation because I heard you were very ill, 
 and because I at that time could write to you, having no 
 other feeling toward you than that of a friend. I supposed 
 you would understand this from the fact of my writing at 
 all. It seemed to me consequently that your letters were 
 anything but friendly, even brutal at times, but I so believed 
 in your honesty and principle that I gave you the benefit of 
 the doubt and laid all the shortcomings to bad health. We 
 are the slaves of our nerves. 
 
 The letter you wrote last December ought to have been 
 written in 1862. You were a moral coward not to have 
 written it then. Now you know you were ; therefore I 
 shall say nothing further because I don't care. That epi- 
 sode has passed out of my life, and is as dead to me as if 
 it were buried six feet under ground. The friendship I 
 entertained for you is very sensibly diminished by knowing 
 more of your real character, but I have, at the same time, 
 a certain respect for a man who even at the eleventh hour 
 will voluntarily enter the confessional and show himself in 
 his true colors. 
 
 By not writing that letter you made me fancy that I had 
 allowed myself to be much more interested in you than you 
 
192 Kate Field 
 
 were in me. This is what made me so indignant with my- 
 self that ever since I have been trying to make the amende 
 honorable by showing you that I was, after all, nothing 
 more than a friend, that I had recovered from the delusion, 
 after considerable mortification. Now I know that I was 
 no such fool, that you were deeply interested in me, as I 
 had reason to suppose at the time. I was young then and 
 inexperienced, but not so inexperienced as to fancy myself 
 admired without any foundation. This has always been 
 the mystery to me, — that I, who never imagine I am mak- 
 ing impressions, who give men the widest possible margin 
 and rarely believe a word they say — when it comes to 
 sentiment — should have made such an idiot of myself. 
 
 Your tardy letter assures me that I was not this idiot, and 
 my regard for my own common sense is much greater than 
 it has been for six years. I thank God that you did not 
 remain longer in Florence and that I did not tarry in Paris, 
 for had you offered me your hand, I should have accepted 
 it, believing you to be other than you are, — and been 
 cured. When my eyes open they open very wide. I am 
 not one to submit tamely to wrong, and separation if not 
 divorce would have been the inevitable consequence of 
 such an ill-assorted union. You do well to say that you 
 will never marry. No woman should be subjected to such 
 a miserable fate. As a single man, infidelity hurts no one 
 but yourself, provided you have honor enough to confine 
 your flirtations to those who are educated in the art. I 
 have no sympathy with flirtation. It must be a very cold 
 nature that can play with fire. Neither do I admire fickle- 
 ness. But your nature in no way concerns me, and pray 
 don't imagine that I am lecturing. I am simply giving my 
 opinion of you and your letter. It is unavoidable, and is 
 given for the very last time. 
 
 I am not the Deity and having no claims to perfection 
 do not intend to visit anathemas upon your head. You 
 
Lecturing and Writing 193 
 
 undoubtedly have many admirable qualities, and so long as 
 you live I shall have hope pf you. I believe that the time 
 will come when you will be tired of your present order of 
 exercises, and will care for more earnest friends. If you 
 desire to retain me as an earnest friend, you can. I shall 
 never flirt with you, never entertain you flippantly, never go 
 down to your lower nature. You must come to me with 
 the best there is in you. I will never tolerate any more 
 cruel, unkind letters. Now we understand each other. If 
 you choose to accept my terms, you can. If you do not 
 care to do so, why, we will part. If ever I meet you it will 
 be in the kindliest manner, for I shall always wish for you 
 health, happiness, and ultimate regeneration. There is 
 something of divinity in you, and the sooner it develops the 
 better for you. You may laugh, but if you have a heart it 
 will be more inclined to weep that a beautiful dream has 
 vanished into such thin air. 
 
 Yours earnestly, 
 
 The Once Mistaken. 
 
 Later, in allusion to this episode in her life Kate 
 recorded : — 
 
 "In 187 1. This man has made a long journey to ask 
 my forgiveness and declare his love, and I have refused 
 him. How strange is life ! " 
 
 The man's reply to this is dated Dec. 4, 1868, and 
 runs : — • 
 
 " It is five months since I received your letter. Had I 
 written at the time, I should have written much that I shall 
 now leave unsaid. I will merely observe that I could not 
 have written my last letter in '62 because my affection for 
 you did not begin to wane until the summer of '63. As 
 soon as I had made up my mind to abandon all pretensions 
 to your heart and hand, I wrote an ungracious letter to that 
 
 13 
 
194 Kate Field 
 
 effect. That was in April, 1864, since which time I cannot 
 be accused of having encouraged you to continue the cor- 
 respondence. In my last I think I attributed my change 
 of feeling to ' inconstancy.' I ought to have told you why 
 I was inconstant to you. It was because I could no longer 
 shut my eyes to the fact that there was great incompatibil- 
 ity in our natures ; that we had many traits of character, 
 habits of thought, tastes, whims, or prejudices — whichever 
 may be the proper term — that were too antagonistic to 
 blend or to harmonize by contrast. Your offer of ' earnest 
 friendship ' is magnanimous ; but permit me to observe 
 that friendship can only exist between equals. If I ever 
 attain to your level, I shall eagerly accept your generous 
 offer." 
 
 But this was not the end. Can anything, indeed, 
 in this part of life be ever said to be the end in our 
 human relationships? At all events, these tw^o ybung 
 people had not lived their lives out, even on earth, at 
 this time: and in the story of Kate's life he is to re- 
 appear, as the reader will find, later on. Each had 
 an intense feeling for the other, however paralyzed 
 into coldness at times, and however successfully dis- 
 guised or concealed. 
 
 In the June of '68 Anthony Trollope, Kate's ardent 
 friend, wrote asking her to secure rooms for them 
 in New York. Adelaide Phillipps sailed for Europe, 
 and the Trollopes arrived. It was during this sum- 
 mer that Miss Field found that Planchette would write 
 for her, — the little mechanism that was then new and 
 attracting a great deal of attention. Kate Field had 
 the electric temperament. She had avast preponder- 
 ance of what latter-day scientists (who are also psy- 
 chic researchers, like Sir William Crookes and Prof. 
 William James) call " luminiferous ether." And it 
 
Lecturing and Writing 1 95 
 
 is said to be by virtue of this ethereal quality that 
 persons possessing it are more or less mediumistic. 
 Certainly Kate was intensely psychic. The clue to 
 her, whole life on earth is to be found, indeed, in 
 the fact that she was intensely susceptible to unseen 
 influences, and that these acted upon her powerfully 
 in ways which science in those years had not begun 
 to reveal. Her experience with Planchette grew to 
 be so marked in the significance of the writing that 
 she collected the matter into a little book called 
 " Planchette's Diary," which was sent to Redfield, 
 the publisher who was to bring it out. He accepted 
 it on her own terms, — ^100 paid in advance, and 
 ten per cent copyright on all the sales. This book is 
 a literary curiosity. Planchette wrote under Kate's 
 hand, and the voluminous communications received 
 were so curiously significant in character as to incite 
 her own analytical study. The modern intimations 
 from the Unseen were then in the early stages, and 
 this little book will always hold a place in the historic 
 record of a progressive movement of psychical re- 
 search, which Mr. Gladstone, some years before his 
 death, pronounced to be the most important move- 
 ment before the world. Space does not here permit 
 citations from " Planchette's Diary," and all that is of 
 special interest or importance in it has already been 
 reproduced in a recent book,^ the original volume 
 being out of print. 
 
 What with Ristori, Charles Dickens, Fanny Kemble, 
 and Adelaide Phillipps, that spring was a memor- 
 able one. The Gary sisters were then living in New 
 York, and Kate knew them well. A playful little 
 
 1 The World Beautiful : Third Series. 
 
1 96 Kate Field 
 
 note from Phoebe Gary to Kate, after the style of a 
 " Herald " " personal " comes to light, running as 
 follows : — 
 
 If the young lady who spent last Thursday evening at No. 
 5 2 East Twentieth Street will meet her friend at the same 
 time and place, she may hear something to her advantage. 
 
 Phcebe Gary. 
 
 P. S. — This establishment does not advertise in the 
 "Herald." 
 
 Of the opening of the year 1869 Kate's diary 
 graphically records a running story : — 
 
 Friday, Jan. i, 1869. The new year began on an un- 
 lucky day, Friday, and carried out the old superstition. 
 It was most intolerable, and not to be endured. The night 
 before, I went to bed, rather believing that there never 
 would be snow again ; I awakened to assist at the greatest 
 snowstorm in several years. It snowed and blew furiously 
 all night, which state of things aggravated my melancholy 
 at the death of another year. I have just gotten used to 
 '68, and now I am called to throw myself into the arms of 
 unknown '6g. I am sick at heart with the fleetness of 
 time, and have almost determined to close my shop-win- 
 dows until Eternity, when the absence of almanacs will 
 enable me to accomplish something in the course of cycles. 
 My discontent with status quo undoubtedly arises from dis- 
 gust of self. I am wasting time. I know that I do not 
 accomplish all that I should. But I am not thoroughly 
 well, and, moreover, have no one to spur me into new 
 fields. My lecture hangs fire for the reason that I am 
 afraid to touch it. Alas and alas ! I wrote letters and 
 practised all day. Then at five o'clock Mrs. Fields sent a 
 carriage for us. In we stowed ourselves, and were driven 
 through the pitiless snow to No. 148 Charles Street. There 
 we found Whittier, who has a lovely spirit, but is not enter- 
 
Lecturing and Writing 197 
 
 taming at a dinner. In fact, I should have preferred to see 
 Fields alone, and to have heard his literary news and com- 
 ment. Whittier nibbled at his food, and scarcely touched 
 his wine. After dinner there was conversation such as Mr. 
 and Mrs. Fields know how to lead and inspire. I was 
 beguiled into using Planchette. Mr. Whittier said he had' 
 read my " Diary " with interest, and was really quite ear- 
 nest in watching me as I wrote. The communications were 
 pertinent, and some of them about Thackeray and Landor 
 were clever, but there was nothing in them to astound one. 
 I demand tests. Mrs. Stowe is to write an article on Plan- 
 chette for the Atlantic. She believes in it. After Plan- 
 chette I produced my Ristori and Vedder drawings. Both 
 interested Mr. Whittier very much. Being particularly 
 struck by one of Vedder's beautiful drawings, I asked him 
 if he would not write a poem about it. " It is already a 
 poem," he replied. He was right. Many people cannot 
 appreciate Vedder truly. He is too great for the time in 
 which he lives. Later Mrs. Fields read an interesting pri- 
 vate letter from Charles Dickens. He gave a graphic ac- 
 count of his trying his new reading, " Oliver Twist," on his 
 family and then on his friends. " If that 's what you are 
 going to do," said his daughter Mary, " I suppose it ought 
 to be seen and heard, but it is awful." 
 
 " The world has been waiting for a sensation foi fifty 
 years," exclaimed Mrs. Keeley, the actress; "now they 
 have it." 
 
 I believe in Dickens thoroughly, and I Ve no doubt that 
 his new reading, is great; Nevertheless, I do not forget 
 that Rachel and Ristori have lived within fifty years. Per- 
 haps Mrs. Keeley believes in nothing that is not English. 
 I 'd give an immense deal to hear the new reading. The 
 Fields were enthusiastic over a new story of Dickens, 
 " The Star in the East." It is a clever photograph of life. 
 Finally we came home in a worse storm even than that in 
 
1 98 Kate Field 
 
 which we set out, and I went to bed wondering who and 
 what I was ? Where the money to live on is to come from, 
 and whether I ever shall do anything worthy of myself or of 
 the world? 
 
 January 2. Cessation of storm. Wrote out " Lumi- 
 nara of Pisa " with a view to publication, and practised. 
 Went down town and stopped at the Women's Club, where 
 I met Mrs. Sewall. I called on Mrs. Moulton, walking 
 home. 
 
 January 3. A mild day. Read all the papers and wrote 
 with Planchette. Returning, we dined, and I finished my 
 
 " Luminara." Mrs. called and was very flattering, as 
 
 usual. I wish she would n't say such extravagant things to 
 me, for she makes me doubt her 
 
 January 4. Copied sentences from Mrs. Julia Ward 
 Howe's essay with view to a letter for " Health and Home." 
 Walked down town to meet an appointment with Mr. 
 Waters of the "Advertiser,"' and met Mr. Perabo full of 
 enthusiasm over some pictures. He said that Emerson's 
 reading at Chickering's was great. To-night Weiss lectures 
 at the Club, on " Woman." On my way home called at 
 Fields, Osgood, and Co's., and there were Howells, Aldrich, 
 and Fields, all together, and the latter gave me two auto- 
 graph poems, — Lowell's "Two Rabbis," and Whittier's 
 "Ember Picture." I left my MS. of "Luminara" with 
 Fields, which I dare say he will return. I doubt its being 
 good enough for the " Atlantic." Then went to the station to 
 see Aunt Corda off, and then I met Mr. Weld. Walked 
 home and began reading Mary WoUstonecraft's "Rights 
 of Women." 
 
 January 5 . Gilmore has issued the programme for a Grand 
 National Peace Jubilee for the isth, i6th, and 1 7th of June ; 
 1000 orchestra and 9000 chorus. Coliseum on Common. 
 What next? Took notes from " Les Femmes," and prac- 
 tised for two hours. Went down town and left Mrs. Howe's 
 
Lecturing and Writing 1 99 
 
 essay on " Polarity" at her house, not finding her at home. 
 I 'm just as downhearted as I can be, but nobody knows it. 
 I feel as Mrs. Browning felt when she wrote that pathetic 
 poem, "My Heart and I." 
 
 " How tired we are — my heart and I, — 
 We seem of no use in the world." 
 
 What a game life is ! And is it worth the candle ? When 
 I 'm alone, — 
 
 " I am the doubter and the doubt." 
 
 Father, be near and help me. Let me be useful if I 
 cannot be happy. To expect recognition or happiness is 
 folly. I have many who call themselves friends, but — oh, 
 I wish not for much, but more than I shall ever get. This 
 is my cross. I must learn to bear it without murmuring. 
 Amen. 
 
 January 6. A warm, spring-like day. Mr. Fields sent 
 me word that my " Luminara " article is capital, but not im- 
 portant enough for the " Atlantic." Just as I expected. I 've 
 sent it to Lippincott, and have begun a letter for " Hearth 
 and Home " about the latest Boston notion, a grand festi- 
 val in June. In the afternoon went to the Symphony 
 Concert and heard Camilla Urso, who manipulated the 
 violin as beautifully as she alone does. I had to miss Mr. 
 Alcott's Conversation on " Beauty " to-night, because of no 
 escort. Read Mrs. Ball's " College, Market, and Court." 
 
 January 9. Read Mrs. Ball and practised. Bought " With 
 Verdure Clad," a great study. To-night, at Mrs. Water- 
 ston's, where I met Br. Langmaid and General Gordon, both 
 very clever men, Addie Phillipps sang, with the greatest 
 effect. I was then urged to sing, but refused, saying it 
 would be as absurd for me to sing after Adelaide Phillipps 
 as for one who had supped upon canvas-back ducks to call 
 for a thin beefsteak. Addie laughed and said she was 
 
200 Kate Field 
 
 never called that before. "Why," I replied, "you have 
 often been called a duck, and you know you have been 
 extensively canvassed, and frequently backed." Poor sort 
 of wit that. 
 
 But had n't any sort of scruple about singing after a 
 
 great artist, not she. So a thin voice brought forth a 
 mouse, and people exclaimed, " How charming ! " Society 
 is such a humbug, and the bad often seems to have the 
 advantage, because it is brazen and has no feelings. I re- 
 mained until eleven. Addie gave me a very pretty little 
 English ballad, "The Danube River," and made me happy 
 by saying I had made a conquest of Mrs. Waterston. I 
 am glad if this is true, for she is most kind. They have a 
 wealth of books, and are so good as to promise me the run 
 of them. The Waterstons have heart, and are lavish in 
 grace and goodness. 
 
 January lo. Again read from Mrs. Dall. Miss called, 
 
 and we found her a bright, clever woman, — a little anxious, 
 perhaps, to be up to her reputation in what she says, but 
 nice for all that. In the evening we went to Mrs. Moulton's 
 and there met Mrs. Corbin, who has written a novel on the 
 woman question, called " His Marriage Vow," and D. R. 
 Locke, the author of the widely known Nasby papers. I 
 liked him. He is defiant of pronunciation and of elegance, 
 but he is so shrewd, frank, and good-hearted, that I fancied 
 him immediately. He addressed his conversation to me, 
 and we kept on talking till midnight. First women's 
 status, then Grant, Wendell Phillips, the press and person- 
 alities. He was very funny about his interview with Olive 
 Logan and Sikes, — she sending Sikes out of the room, and 
 then exclaiming to Locke, " That man is the Thackeray of 
 America." And he, taking Mr. Locke for a walk, ex- 
 claimed, " Do you know there is not a woman on earth 
 who writes Hke Olive?" I should hope not, indeed! 
 Locke has made ^40,000 in one year's lecturing ; and by 
 
Lecturing and Writing 201 
 
 his Nasby papers he has gained nothing but reputation. 
 Such is Ufe. I shall lecture. 
 
 January 11. Addie Phillipps called to invite me to the 
 opera. A letter from Redfield saying that 1300 copies of 
 " Planchette's Diary " remain unsold. All speak well of it. 
 however, even the most intelligent. The Diary is nothing, 
 and as I expected nothing from it, I am not disappointed, 
 but I a7n sorry for my publisher. I have tickets for 
 Alcott's next Conversation, and I secured mother's photo- 
 graphs to-day, which are beautiful. In the evening went to 
 the Club, where was laid an aesthetic tea, Mrs. Howe pre- 
 siding. Among those present were Mrs. Lodge. The 
 members are all efficient and strong in their way. 
 
 January 12. Read, practised, wrote, and received a 
 long letter from Elliott Coues, who speaks with great praise 
 of "Planchette's Diary," and says that he, too, writes with 
 Planchette. An invitation to a party at Mrs. Waterston's, 
 and I shall go. A letter from Carrie Rosencrans, who says 
 that Vedder is threatened with pleurisy. [Miss Rosen- 
 crans, now Mrs. Vedder, was then the fiancde of the great 
 artist.] I returned Mrs. Dall's valuable book to the Library 
 and took out " Histoire Morale des Femmes." Henry 
 James repeated his essay on " Women " at Chickering Hall 
 for the benefit of the Club. Annie, an old servant, whom I 
 had such a bother getting off to Ireland last June, writes 
 beseeching me to send her money to return. She is out of 
 work, has spent all her money, and knows not what to do. 
 How I 'm to get the money, or what I 'm to do with her 
 when she gets here, Heaven only knows. It must be 
 accomplished, however, in some way. We are the only 
 persons in the world to whom she can look for help, — 
 poor thing. I visited Mrs. Waterston and Addie Phillipps 
 to-day, and told Addie I 'd do all I could to rouse the press 
 and make Maretzek engage her if she would say the word. 
 Addie is rather in favor of it, and Mrs. Waterston promised 
 
202 Kate Field 
 
 her aid. ... In the evening, mother and I went to Alcott's 
 Conversation on " Theism and Christianity." My first ex- 
 perience in these unique entertainments. Mr. Alcott is to 
 me incomprehensible. Henry James told me the other 
 day, when he called, that Alcott once said to him : " There 
 are but three men who never strayed from the Divine 
 Centre : Socrates, Christ, and myself." I think that is say- 
 ing about as much for himself as a man can. Carlyle calls 
 him "the acorn-eating Alcott," and Emerson, when Mr. 
 James told him of Alcott's assertion, replied : " But, after 
 all, he is the most spiral flame New England has produced." 
 When Carlyle heard this he went into fits of laughter. I 
 dare say Alcott is a spiral flame, only I don't know what 
 that means. These Concordians are too much for me. 
 However, Alcott was interesting in his monologue, with his 
 serene, benignant face, his thin white hair looking like spun 
 glass, and his curious gesticulation with his left hand, as if 
 brandishing something at an imaginary enemy. He made 
 a strong distinction between personality and individuality, 
 saying we were persons not individuals in another world, 
 the former being the soul, the latter body. His interpre- 
 tation of Christ's words, " I and my Father are one," was 
 very satisfactory. Mr. Alcott came to me later and cour- 
 teously expressed his regret that I had not been present at 
 the Conversations on " Plato " and " Beauty," and he added 
 that "this to-night was rather dry." I do not think so. 
 
 January 14. Read Legouvd and practised. " Hearth and 
 Home " returned my article on the Peace Jubilee as likely 
 to be stale before they could publish it, and I posted it to 
 the "Republican." A letter from Willie Winter. Mrs. 
 Russell called, then Lizzie Boott and Dr. and Mrs. Angell, 
 who liked my little room very much. Mrs. Waterston, 
 too, made me a little visit, and said that Addie Phillipps 
 was averse to any demonstration in her favor. So like 
 the great artist that she is. 
 
Lecturing and Writing 203 
 
 January 15. Still not well and in the house all day. Mr. 
 James Murdock called and we had a long talk. I told him 
 of my lecturing idea and he seized upon it immediately. 
 He has very good ideas, and he gave me more encourage- 
 ment than I have ever before received. He said he would 
 come on and help me make my first appearance if I would 
 let him know. He thinks I can be successful. Mr. 
 Murdock told me that only ten months ago a friend of 
 Anna Dickinson's asked him to prepare her for the stage. 
 A party in the evening at Mrs. Waterston's, and I met 
 Gen. Horace Binney Sargent. There was music, and 
 Addie sang. 
 
 January \']. Wrote notes on Legouv6's book, and letters, 
 
 letters, — among them a non-committal one to . Other 
 
 women may glory in scalps ; I won't. If he will be a friend 
 and nothing more, all right. Mother went to hear Weiss 
 on " The Evils of the Day." Says it was great. 
 
 January 1 8. At the Radical Club Colonel Higginson read 
 a paper on the " Greek Goddesses," and there was a vigor- 
 ous discussion by Mrs. Howe, Mr. Alcott, Miss Peabody, 
 and others. John Weiss, whom I ventured to stir up, was 
 eloquent in praise of the women — not goddesses — of 
 to-day, and even I dared to say a word which turned out 
 a strong blow to the pretty theorizing. I said, " After all, 
 Colonel Higginson, I do not believe there is a woman 
 present who would return to the Greek civilization," — a 
 remark received with applause. Something was said by 
 Mr. Alcott about Plato and women. When I ventured to 
 say that Mr. Alcott must remember Plato's declaring that 
 women were not capable of Platonic affection, he grew 
 excited and denied that anything of the sort had ever 
 been said by Plato. I had only read this in Legouv^, so 
 I could n't prove it. I '11 read Plato now and find out for 
 myself. The meeting was interesting. We met there Mr. 
 Robinson, the " Warrington " of the Springfield " Republi- 
 
204 Kate Field 
 
 can," and later mother and I called, on Mrs. Fields. On 
 our way home we stopped at the Library, where I took out 
 Grote's "Plato." 
 
 January 20. Another wonderful day. What this 
 weather means, Heaven only knows. I hope it has nothing 
 to do with the earthquakes that are performing with great 
 
 effect in various parts of the world. A letter from , who 
 
 says she heard my " Moving Tale " pronounced very clever, 
 and that I was called " very beautiful." I laughed. Better 
 be thought a beauty than a fright. I am reading Aira^e 
 Martin's " Education des Mferes de Famille." At the 
 Symphony Concert Haydn in D and Beethoven's Eighth 
 Symphony were as pure and refreshing as mountain spring 
 
 water. At breakfast Dr. got into an argument with 
 
 mother about women, and declared that any woman who 
 spoke in public was unfeminine, et cetera. And this man 
 is now speaking and preaching, — a man of less originality, 
 of less breadth, of more conceit, of less dignity, I never 
 met in my life. He is an insuiferable bore, and is never 
 happy save when talking of himself. I wish he 'd vanish. 
 How long, O Lord, how long? 
 
 Mrs. called, and in the course of conversation I 
 
 said that I held the post of honor to be a private station ; 
 that a home, a loving husband and children, were the real 
 satisfactions of a woman's Ufe. 
 
 "Strange that you should say this," replied Mrs. . 
 
 "Why?" I asked. 
 
 " Because you strive for just the opposite." 
 
 " I am trying to make a living, certainly.'' 
 
 " The world says you care for nothing but fame." 
 
 "The world tells many lies." 
 
 "Ah, but there is never fire without smoke," she replied. 
 
 Polite, to say the least. I scorn to vindicate myself to 
 such people. I am misunderstood. 
 
 Januaiyii. A bright cold day. Got Rousseau's " Emile " 
 
Lecturing and Writing 205 
 
 from the Library. ... An invitation from the Longs to a 
 German on Friday. Read all the evening. A letter from 
 Juliet Goodwin saying that Henry James was enthusiastic 
 in my praise. " Barkis is willin'." Letter from Putnam 
 desiring me to send on my " Luminara." I '11 oblige him. 
 He '11 return it " with regrets." Read in Plato's " Republic " 
 and Rousseau's " Emile." Plato does not confound me with 
 his wisdom, and I don't see what Mr. Alcott meant by 
 advising all young girls to take Plato as a guide. Mrs. 
 Moulton's report of Colonel Higginson's address on the 
 " Antislavery Standard " is very good. It looks queer 
 to see my little remark in print. Down town and called 
 on Mrs. Ballou. The photographs of father's picture are 
 good. It is the finest face I know. 
 
 January 24. A lovely day. Rose late ; read " Emile," 
 and just as I was going out Mrs. Homans came. A charm- 
 ing woman. While talking, Addie Philhpps came, anxious 
 to have me go to Chicago with her to-morrow. She is en- 
 gaged for several concerts by Parepa Rosa, who is laid up 
 with rheumatism. I felt much like going, but health and 
 duty say stay at home, and I resign the pleasure. Later I 
 went to Horticultural Hall to hear Mrs. Howe on "Re- 
 ligion," her first professional appearance. The hall was 
 well filled with the best people, who appreciated the many 
 fine things she said. I borrowed a Bible (all ours are 
 packed), for I want to study it for myself. In the evening 
 Addie Phillipps came for me to go with her to Camilla 
 Urso's testimonial concert. Urso was delightful in Bee- 
 thoven's concerto. Addie sang " Lascia ch' io pianga," 
 and " O Lord of Hosts " from " Samson." She was fine, 
 Addie and Mrs. Waterston left me at home, and I slept the 
 sleep of the just. 
 
 January 2'^. Read " Emile " and practised. MissFroth- 
 ingham called. Dropped in at Club but found mouth- 
 ing poetry, and I beat a retreat. Called on the Bracketts, 
 
2o6 Kate Field 
 
 who told me that I 'd made a deep impression on Nasby 
 (Locke). Very glad, as I like him. A letter from Lina 
 Warren containing a little picture, — New Year's gift. En- 
 countered Mr. Osgood in the street, who stopped me and 
 wanted to know when I had returned from New York. 
 Seemed surprised that I had been in town so long, and 
 wanted to know why I had not advised him. Nous 
 verrons. 
 
 January 26. A bitter cold day. Finished "Emile." 
 Rousseau therein gives a few good ideas, which he drowns 
 in an ocean of turbid sentimentality. A sweet picture he 
 draws certainly of a perfect man and woman. False, false, 
 false ! Rousseau's conception of woman is as wrong as it 
 can be. A fine man, he, to instruct the world. 
 
 Practised, went out and called on Madame Bendelari. 
 Came home soon, nearly frozen and as blue as possible. 
 Tomlinson sent me the money for my article in Warren's 
 " Advocate." A letter from Carrie Rosencrans enclosing one 
 from Charley Coleman in which he calls me " Dear Cousin 
 Kate, — the tonic of the earth. I swear by her, and would 
 fight for her any day." Ah, well, perhaps I 'm of some 
 little use to somebody. Perhaps by leading an honest life 
 I may help to raise the standard of my sex. But, oh, I am 
 weary, weary. 
 
 Read Plato. Dr. Lothrop called. He is interesting, 
 although Weiss called him a clerical Silenus. 
 
 January 27. Charming day, warm as May. Rose early, 
 and by half-past ten o'clock I was off for Mrs. Sargent's 
 to assist at the supplementary meeting of the Radical Club. 
 Mrs. Linton read a very interesting paper on the " Religion 
 of Organization," and the conversation that ensued between 
 Weiss, Alcott, Robert Dale Owen, and Mrs. Foster was 
 better than usual. Mrs. Sargent begged me to report the 
 meeting, and to oblige her I took notes. Mr. Linton gave 
 me his MS. I was introduced to Mr. Parker, a clever 
 
Lecturing and Writing 207 
 
 radical and a lawyer, and Mr. Powell, editor of the " Anti- 
 slavery Standard." They were both very kind in what they 
 said to me. ... I had a pleasant chat with Mrs. Dale 
 Owen and Mrs. N. P. WiUis. The latter told me that she 
 had received but $60 on the copyright of her husband's 
 books. . . . After the Club dispersed, fourteen of us, in- 
 cluding A\'endell Phillips, Mr. 'Weiss, and Mr. Linton sat 
 down to a lunch. I sat beside Saint Wendell, who was as 
 lovely as a June day. He is very sympathetic to me, and 
 if I saw much of him I should love him, I am quite sure. 
 He is so truly a gentleman. He told me that he had 
 never studied oratory ; that it came to him by nature, but 
 that he had had his failures. I walked toward home with 
 Mr. Linton, who stopped at Fields, Osgood, and Company's, 
 and on reaching home found that Mrs. Whipple and Mr. 
 and Mrs. Fields had called. In the evening to Mrs. 
 Howe's reception. A crowd ; met Mr. Morton again, 
 Governor Claflin, and others. Mrs. Howe in low neck and 
 short sleeves. She is a most charming hostess. . . . 
 
 January 2?,. Another charming day. Read " Republic." 
 Mrs. Anthony and Mr. Linton made us a long call. 
 Lunched at Mrs. Moulton's to meet Mrs. Bullard, — an 
 interesting woman with a beautiful Greek profile. In the 
 evening we attended the antislavery festival. Reformers 
 are the queerest-looking people I ever saw. " Here is the 
 angel who records our sins," said Mr. Phillips, when he 
 shook hands with me. He spoke admirably, so did Weiss. 
 Then Mrs. Howe read two of her poems. Mrs. Sargent 
 says ^5 000 will be made for the " Antislavery Standard." 
 No need of such an organ ? Slavery dead ? When not an 
 hotel or a boarding-house will receive Menard and Simms, 
 the colored members of Congress, who are now in the city. 
 Mrs. Sargent has herself taken them. "They shall he 
 accommodated if I go into the streets myself," she bravely 
 said ; and then, crowded as her house is, she found room 
 for them. 
 
2o8 Kate Field 
 
 January 30. A rainy, dreary day. After breakfast wrote 
 off r6sum6 of Linton's essay. Dined with the Anthonys, 
 where were Mr. Linton and Mr. Osgood. Dinner very 
 pleasant. I like the Anthonys extremely. Mr. Osgood is 
 a fine fellow and a genial companion. The more I see of 
 him, the better I like him. He walked home with me, and 
 a glorious night made the distance much too short for my 
 inclinations. I could have walked miles. Going to the 
 Anthonys in a dull, feverish condition, I returned home in 
 the best of spirits. Such is the effect of being with people 
 one enjoys. 
 
 Sunday, January 31. A horrid east wind day. I lay 
 in bed dreaming until one o'clock, and took my breakfast 
 and dinner combined one hour later. John How called, 
 and I sang for him. He was followed by Frank Boott, who 
 engaged me for Tuesday week for a stance, with Mrs. 
 Tappan and myself as mediums. Took tea. Read a pile 
 of newspapers. 
 
 February i. A cold, fine day. Took notes from Rous- 
 seau's " Emile." Practised. Went to the Library, returning 
 " Emile " and took out " Corinne." Called on Mrs. Moul- 
 ton and saw Mrs. BuUard, who is very interesting. Sang all 
 the evening. 
 
 February 3. At the Woman's Club to-night Mrs. 
 
 read a paper. I did not go. They say she looked all 
 around the room for Kate Field and not discovering me 
 said, " Then my manuscript is safe." It would have been 
 " safe " in any event, so far as I am concerned. I can't 
 blow a horn whose notes are not music. In a letter from 
 Aunt Corda to-day I learn that Junius Henri Browne has 
 put me in his subscription book, — " The Great Metrop- 
 olis." I am one of the " distinguished women," Mrs. 
 Calhoun and Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge being among them. 
 Here is the damning with faint praise and praising with 
 faint damns : — 
 
Lecturing and Writing 209 
 
 " Kate Field, daughter of J. M. Field, the actor, and a 
 bright writer for the ' Atlantic ' and other magazines, is rather 
 small in stature, a pleasant blonde. Seems to be in excel- 
 lent spirits always and delights in epigrammatic conversation. 
 [Do I ?] She was a friend of that cultivated and peculiar 
 brute, Walter Savage Landor, whom she knew in Italy. She 
 gained considerable fame here by her elaborate ' Tribune ' 
 critiques, or, rather, eulogies, upon Ristori when she first 
 appeared in this country. She is frequently at Miss Gary's 
 receptions." 
 
 Sat down to my lecture. Tried all day Saturday and 
 not a word came. Just as I began to screw my cour- 
 age to the sticking point Mr. and Mrs. Howells came. I 
 was very glad to see them, and we had a charming visit, 
 grumbling over the miseries of authorship. They remained 
 for a long call, but too short for me. Later I went down 
 town and called on Mrs. Severance, situated at the top of 
 Belleview with a view over all creation. In the evening I 
 sang to callers. Shall I have courage to write to-morrow? 
 Munson sent me his photograph, and Tom Sturgis, from the 
 wilds of Missouri, writes me, enclosing a letter for "The Trib- 
 une." I doubt whether " The Tribune " will publish Tom's 
 first effort, but I '11 do what I can for him. He is a manly 
 fellow, and has no end of pluck. How many more men am 
 I to take in tow ? Formerly I had my hands full of artists ; 
 lately I seem to have been getting into business channels. 
 How queer a kaleidoscope is life ! 
 
 February 4. As vile a day as one desires to see. Snow 
 and then rain. Walked down to Pinckney Street to invite 
 the Anthonys and Mr. Osgood to dine Saturday. Found 
 Mrs. A. ill with a headache, but she said they would come 
 if Mr. Osgood returned from New York in time. Borrowed 
 "Aurora Leigh." By the time I reached home, I was 
 afloat in my own boots. In the evening Mr. and Mrs. Sloane 
 called and asked me to sing. Mr. Sloane was enthusiastic 
 
 14 
 
2IO Kate Field 
 
 over "The Danube River." After they left I ran through 
 "x\urora Leigh." How I see dear Mrs. Browning in every 
 line ! Helen Hunt's encyclical letter reached me. It is 
 clever, but somehow I don't relish a private letter written 
 for circulation among fifteen or twenty. It looks like 
 posing, — not easy enough. She says some good things, 
 though. . . . There comes a grand account of the opening 
 of Booth's Theatre in New York. I expect the acting was 
 bad, scenery fine. Such is our stage. 
 
 February 6. Wakened with a sore throat. Wrote 
 beginning of lecture, and practised with some difficulty. 
 By afternoon I was worse, and at night my throat was very 
 sore. Mrs. Governor Smith of Vermont came in, and said 
 she had a plot for a novel in a Husband of Fact and a 
 Husband of Fancy. She said that when she was first mar- 
 ried she lived two lives, — on the plane of fact, she met her 
 husband ; on the plane of fancy, she met an ideal man 
 entirely different. As years went by the two became less 
 distinct, until finally both blended and she found all she 
 craved in her own husband. She had grown to his fact, 
 and he had grown to her fancy. A capital idea that might 
 be elaborated — by one who has brains. It is too much 
 for me, I fear. 
 
 February 7. Passed a restless night and wakened with 
 a very bad ulcerated sore throat. Lay on sofa and did 
 nothing. Mrs. Angell called and presented me with a ticket 
 to Listermann's quartette concerts. In the evening I felt 
 a little better. Memorized Hood's "Song of the Shirt," 
 which mother read to me with great feeling. Was to have 
 had the Anthonys and Mr. Osgood to dine, but had to write 
 them to postpone it. 
 
 February ?,th. A lovely day. Throat better, but still 
 ulcerated. Kept my room. Still no appetite. Read the 
 paper and wrote on my lecture. John How came and 
 brought me two songs, — Wallace's "Winds that waft my 
 
Lecturing and Writing 211 
 
 Sighs to Thee " and Archer's " Alice." Henry James, Jr., 
 soon followed and remained until night. We had a good 
 long talk about everything under the sun and some things 
 above it. I lay on the sofa rather exhausted. When I am 
 excited I do not realize how much vitality I throw off. 
 
 February %th. Throat better, but still ulcerated. Read 
 and wrote a lecture. I actually begin to see a little light. 
 McGlenen sent me an invitation to visit Selwyn's Theatre 
 at any time. Very polite. The first courtesy I ever re- 
 ceived from a theatre, Ristori excepted. Of course did not 
 go to the social tea at the Women's Club. Cards from Bes- 
 sie Frothingham and Walter Brown. May they be happy. 
 Shall not be able to go to write with Planchette to-morrow 
 night where we were to have a Planchette stance. 
 
 From February 8 there is a blank in this journal 
 till November of the ensuing autumn. Miss Field 
 then writes : — 
 
 November, 1869. A long blank of some months, in 
 which I have lived years, and why I have not grown gray 
 under the pressure, the excitement, and the misery seems 
 strange to me, who know myself so well. Oh, if there were 
 some one who knew me half as well ! 
 
 Ill for a month previous with an ulcerated sore throat, on 
 March 3d I made my debut as a lecturer at Chickering 
 Hall, before the most critical audience that Boston can as- 
 semble. James T. Fields says it was the most successful 
 d^but that he ever saw. The papers next day were very 
 eulogistic. I was more dead than alive at the time, and 
 had not the remotest idea what sort of an impression I pro- 
 duced. Mr. Whipple's notice in the " Transcript " was 
 very fine. I was invited to repeat my lecture, " Women in 
 the Lyceum," by the best men in town. It was again given 
 with the same success. On the 2 2d of April I appeared 
 at Newton ; on May 4 at Brooklyn, where I was introduced 
 
212 Kate Field 
 
 by Mr. Beecher, and on May loth at the Union League 
 Theatre, before a crowded house of fashionables. " The 
 Tribune " gave me an editorial, and all the papers treated 
 me well. 
 
 In June I reported the Peace Jubilee for " The Tribune," 
 and received the kindest courtesy in the press room. It 
 was one of the pleasantest experiences of my life. On July 
 5 th I started for the Adirondacks with mother, and the 
 Rev. Mr. Murray was of our party. 
 
 What came of that excursion has been printed and 
 spoken. Returned August ist, joining Aunt Corda at Sara- 
 toga, where all attended the races, and had nine days of 
 Congress water. While there I wrote four columns for 
 "The Tribune." While there, Mr. Osgood invited me to 
 stop at Lanesville on my way to Newport, which I did, 
 passing three days with the Anthonys, the Partons, Mr. 
 Osgood, and T. B. Aldrich. On August 16 found myself 
 again in old Newport. 
 
 Mr. Osgood thought well of a caricature book apropos of 
 the Adirondacks, and told me to write out my sketch for 
 illustration, which I did, but the artist who came down to 
 get my ideas was so bad that the plan was deferred sine die. 
 I wrote another letter about the Adirondacks to "The 
 Tribune," and by August 26 had an article called " In and 
 Out of the Woods," written for the " Atlantic Almanac," 
 which Mr. Osgood says is the best thing in it. Then I be- 
 gan my lecture, which it was hard to write in the lazy atmos- 
 phere of Newport. Between the sentences I rowed, and 
 made Ida Lewis's acquaintance. On September 4th I saw 
 a tremendous gale, the worst since 1815. Correcting proof 
 with one eye, I watched vessels break away and drift from 
 their moorings with the other. It was a terrible spectacle, 
 and the damage to the town was great. September 17 th 
 Mr. Osgood and the Anthonys visited us. On the 27th 
 mother and I returned to the St. James, Boston. On Octo- 
 
Lecturing and Writing 2 1 3 
 
 ber I St I again started for the Adirondacks, where in com- 
 pany with the Farquets, Mr. and Mrs. Emmons, Mr. E. F. 
 Parker, and Mr. Arthur J. Landon, I passed a very jolly 
 week, ascending Whiteface only to get caught in the rain, 
 and visiting Elizabethtown and Ausable Chasm. Owing to 
 the terrible freshets and breakage on the road, I was obliged 
 to return from Plattsburg via Albany. To Troy I got on 
 very well. Smith M. Weed, the democratic politician, being 
 my escort, but on arriving at Greenbush my troubks began, 
 for at Albany in a strange hotel, in the pouring rain, I was 
 stranded for forty-eight hours, my only consolation being in 
 work. I wrote all day Sunday. 
 
 Previous to leaving for the Adirondacks the last time, I 
 wrote a biography of Mr. Osgood for the "Advertisers' 
 Monthly." Then I sat down and finished my lecture, and 
 on October 15th took it to Mr. Osgood to read. He re- 
 turned it the next day, praising it highly, saying that it 
 would go far toward making my future, but advising me, as 
 a matter of policy, to leave out the peroration on John 
 Brown. Leave out the only portion that was a matter of 
 conscience? How wretched I was on that Saturday ! I 
 shall never forget it the longest day I live. I sobbed like a 
 child, and wanted to die. Then conviction took possession 
 of me and said, "Retain the peroration if you die." So I 
 wrote a letter to Mr. Osgood, telling him that my conscience 
 forced me to hold fast to John Brown. 
 
 The series of circumstances that arise through 
 a lifetime by means of which moral fibre is tested 
 and developed offers an interesting problem. The 
 kingdoms of this world are forever being offered to 
 those who accept the terms ; but to those who pray 
 " Give me new wisdom and knowledge," these gifts 
 are granted. Kate Field was not one to sell her soul 
 for a mess of pottage. As this record has revealed, 
 
2 1 4 Kate Field 
 
 there arose one crisis in her Hfe when the choice 
 was between the inheritance of a large fortune or 
 the free and full expression of her patriotic ardor 
 in the hour of her country's peril. She unhesitat- 
 ingly chose the latter and renounced the wealth 
 that might have been hers. For in the time of the 
 Civil War party spirit ran so high that it was very 
 possible for a man who had many admirable quali- 
 ties and impulses of lavish generosity to yet be so 
 intrenched in his prejudice as to be exasperated by 
 direct opposition to his views, and this, too, on the 
 part of a young girl whom he had warmly befriended 
 and whom, being a woman, he did not recognize as 
 possessing any right or title to hold political con- 
 victions. Again before Miss Field arose circum- 
 stances when she must choose between the politic, 
 the merely expedient, and the eternal right. " You 
 will ruin yourself as a lecturer if you insist on eulo- 
 gizing John Brown," said to her. " Then let me 
 
 be ruined," was her reply. 
 
 Yet she was facing the problem, not only of self- 
 support, but of caring for her delicate mother. To 
 earn a living for two at the point of a pen, especially 
 in those days when literature was far less remunera- 
 tive than now, and when there was much less de- 
 mand for literary productions, was not unlike the 
 task of Sisyphus. On the other hand, the lyceum 
 lecture of that time was the most remunerative of 
 the professions and attracting many of the finest 
 intellects of the age. George William Curtis, Wen- 
 dell Phillips, Henry Ward Beecher, Edwin P. Whip- 
 ple, Anna Dickinson, Starr King, and Mary A. 
 Livermore were sweeping the country with their 
 eloquence and communicable ardor. Emerson, 
 
Lecturing and Writing 2 1 5 
 
 Lowell, Whipple, and Mrs. Howe also occasionally 
 went far afield ; and although with them the lecture 
 never became an exclusive profession as with the 
 others mentioned, yet their appearances on the plat- 
 form contributed signally to the diffusion of the higher 
 culture. One must have grown up from a child, 
 in the middle West, to be able to quite appreciate 
 what the lyceum lecture system did for the people 
 through that decade of the seventies. It is not now 
 held as an article of faith by the people of the East 
 that the inhabitants West of the Alleghanies differ 
 in essential characteristics from those on the other 
 side of this mountain range. Customs and fashions 
 and even the finer culture follow the star of empire 
 westward, and the settlers of the great middle West 
 were very largely the flower of New England enter- 
 prise and energy. The succeeding generations were 
 their children, and they have never revealed them- 
 selves, as a whole, without a very fair share of those 
 virtues and aspirations which so signally mark the 
 distinctive New England character. But inner as- 
 piration does not, alas ! immediately create outer 
 advantages. Education in the scholastic way has 
 never lagged superfluous in the middle West; but 
 education in the sense of artistic culture requires 
 museums and galleries and many aids that this 
 region is, even now, only beginning to acquire. 
 In the sense of literary culture the advantages were 
 less impossible. A great picture or statue may only 
 be seen in one place at the same time; but books 
 and periodicals have wings, and are rather mag- 
 netically attracted to their lovers. Thus it was that 
 the people of this region were very conversant 
 with the literature and thought of the day, and were 
 
2i6 Kate Field 
 
 prepared to welcome, with the most intelligent appre- 
 ciation, the lyceum lecturers who appeared through 
 the cities and towns. Families living in the country- 
 would willingly drive ten miles and back at night to 
 hear Emerson or Phillips, Mrs. Livermore or Anna 
 Dickinson, and it was to this enticing profession 
 that Kate Field began to incline. It was very 
 remunerative. Miss Dickinson has said that for 
 several years her income averaged ^30,000 annu- 
 ally from her lecturing. Mrs. Livermore — in case 
 her generosity ever permitted accumulations — must 
 have had a similar experience ; for the infinite num- 
 ber of people whom she has helped and placed on a 
 foundation to proceed again, is something of which 
 only the Recording Angel could give accurate statis- 
 tics. The lecture audiences of those days were people 
 who could seldom enjoy pictorial, lyric, or dramatic 
 art. The lyceum platform was their theatre, their 
 art galleries, their balls and dinners as well. The 
 arrival of the lecturer was an event. 
 
 Kate Field made her initial appearance on the 
 platform in March of 1869 with a lecture entitled 
 "Women in the Lyceum." She had made an in- 
 stant success with a witty and thoughtful paper 
 on what was then a comparatively new theme. 
 A press notice, describing her appearance on this 
 occasion, said : — 
 
 " Miss Field was costumed in a blue and white silk, with 
 flowers in her belt. Her hair, which is sunny brown, was 
 looped up at the back of the head by a comb, and fell in a 
 cascade of shining curls down her neck. She is slender, 
 and eminently graceful. For the rest, she has blue eyes, a 
 rather prominent nose, a generous mouth, whose expression 
 
Lecturing and Writing 217 
 
 is wonderfully improved when she smiles, a well-developed 
 forehead, and a chin that indicates a good deal of will 
 power. As a whole, the face cannot be called a handsome 
 one, yet there is a bright intellectuality about it which makes 
 even a more grateful impression upon the beholder than 
 mere beauty could. Her elocution is — well, it is super- 
 latively Bostonian ; and that means as proper as proper can 
 be. She sits as she reads, manages her inflections very artis- 
 tically, and charms you with the music of her voice no less 
 than with the piquancy of her thought." 
 
 Rev. O. B. Frothingham wrote congratulating 
 her : — ■ 
 
 New York, April 5, 1868. 
 My dear Friend, — Accept my heartiest congratulations. 
 I was confident of your success, but such a brilliant success 
 did surprise me a little. More anon, when I see you. 
 Good-by. With kindest love to your mother, believe me. 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 O. B. Frothingham. 
 
 Henry James, pire, thus amusingly narrated an 
 expedition he undertook on behalf of Miss Field : 
 
 My blessed Child, — I went, as you bade me, to the 
 " Advertiser," but learned Mr. Waters was out of town. 
 Where was Goddard ? Three stories up ! I proceeded, 
 when I discovered he was out ! 'T was ever thus. 'T is 
 true, 't is pity ; pity 't is, 't is true. But Mr. Goddard had 
 authorized his colleague to inquire of the fugitive Waters, 
 What could he do? What could we do? Prosecute? 
 Nay, forgive him once, but only this once. So I came 
 home to think what a dear, industrious, good little girl you 
 had been to occupy your fair fingers with my crabbed in- 
 tellectual fancies, and to tell my wife and daughter that not 
 even they should be henceforth more sure of my tender 
 
2 1 8 • Kate Field 
 
 and most respectful homage. But in reading over your 
 Report, blessed child, I could n't help seeing that my 
 crooked intellect had stifled the free movement of your 
 spirit for the time ; and I at once sat down to rewrite my 
 paper with less of myself and more of your lovelier self in 
 it. And this I send as a substitute for your gracious gift, 
 leaving you to retouch it as you please, and make such use 
 of it as you will, — stipulating only that you cover and con- 
 ceal from your lovely eyes my masculine conceit in the 
 drapery of your own womanly forgiveness. Forgive me, 
 but not forget me, and believe me. 
 Your friend, 
 
 Henry James. 
 
 Another letter from Mr. Frothingham runs : — 
 
 January 2, 1867. 
 
 My dear Friend, — If George Bancroft, or George Rip- 
 ley, or any other of my learned acquaintances, had sent me 
 a handsome copy of " Michelet,'' I should have been sur- 
 prised at nothing but the kindness of the remembrance. 
 But when Kate Field sent it I was impressed, not by the 
 kindness merely, but by the kind of kindness. Are you a 
 pundittoo or a pundette ? Do you deal with Muckle, with 
 Mickles, and people of that ilk? Do you lend a hand at 
 large ... as well as at magazine and newspapers? I shall 
 begin to be afraid of you, through the very cause that should 
 make me think of you with more affection than ever. I 
 shall take you for a universal genius, and always some remote 
 and private sanctum, where you pass studious hours over 
 the great poets and sages . ; . the vain world is forgetting. 
 I will spare you all that ill opinion, however, until further 
 evidence for my suspicions, and only thank you heartily 
 for thinking of me in holiday times, as well as in times of 
 trouble, and your taking the pains to bring me a gift, which 
 must have some associations of a tender character connected 
 
Lecturing and Writing 219 
 
 with it. Pray don't forget to remember me again in times 
 of perplexity and trouble, when you think my poor advice 
 or influence may be of the remotest service to you. 
 
 With kind regards to your mother, who is well, I trust, by 
 this time, and with best wishes for the New Year, believe me. 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 O. B. FROTHINGHAil. 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth C. Kinney, the mother of Mr. Ed- 
 mund C. Stedman, thus writes to Kate : — 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — How your name — so often seen in 
 print as the lecturer or author, and in my son's letters as 
 Xht friend — takes me back to old Florence, and to some 
 of our mutual literary associates there who are now no more. 
 But I have not taken up my pen to speak of Italy, or the 
 days of auld lang syne. I want rather to thank you for 
 your beautiful, able notice of Edmund's collected poems. 
 I feel a twofold pride for " Pan in Wall Street," first, as a 
 mother, and, secondly, for my fair country-women, who so 
 graciously and aptly brought home the poet's theme. Your 
 " Hap-Hazard " is by me as I write, and I congratulate you 
 alike on the piquancy and point of its pages and the felicity 
 of its title. With warm wishes for your success in this and 
 every venture, I am. 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 E. C. Kinney. 
 
 Immediately after her first appearance, Miss Field 
 had the compliment of being invited by a number of 
 eminent men, among whom were Hon. William C. 
 Claflin, Henry James, pire, Dr. Holmes, T. B. Aldrich, 
 and James T. Fields to repeat her lecture, this testi- 
 monial bearing the date of April 3, 1869. Of this 
 second elifort Mr. Wasson wrote to her : — 
 
2 20 Kate Field 
 
 CusTOM-HousE, Boston, April 13, 1869. 
 Dear Miss Field, — I felt just like quaffing a glass of 
 your sparkling wine yesterday, but the fates had decreed 
 that I should remain thirsty. "Official duties" detained 
 me until thirty minutes past the hour. I was wilhng to be 
 guilty of the barbarism of coming a quarter late rather than 
 lose the entertainment altogether, but twice that was mani- 
 festly too much. I thank you for the ticket you were kind 
 enough to send me, and congratulate you with all my heart 
 on your success. 
 
 Yours with much regard, 
 
 D. A. Wasson. 
 
 Mr. Hilliard also wrote : — 
 
 Boston, April 13, 1869. 
 My DEAR Miss Field, — " But with the morning cool re- 
 flection came." But with the cool reflection of the morning 
 I will say that your lecture was a success. In the first place, 
 it was well written, with a style simple and yet pointed, with 
 good thought and good rhetoric. In the next place, your 
 manner was good, your enunciation is very distinct, and 
 the quality of your voice will enable you to fill a much 
 larger space than you occupied yesterday. But as I am 
 nothing if not critical, I make two slight qualifications to 
 my commendation. First, I should omit hereafter what 
 you say of the novel of St. Elmo as being somewhat out of 
 harmony with the rest of your discourse, and also because 
 the game is hardly worth such good powder and shot as 
 yours. And next you occasionally, in speaking, fall into a 
 slightly artificial tone or cadence. This was, perhaps, the 
 result of embarrassment, and will probably pass off with 
 time. Cultivate, in speaking, the easy, natural tone of con- 
 versation. This is the charm of Mr. Phillips's speaking, 
 and with him, as with all finished orators, such ease is the 
 result of exquisite art, and not a gift of nature. 
 
Lecturing and Writing 221 
 
 You observed, yesterday afternoon, that my countenance 
 was shorn of a portion of its usual charms. I was suffering 
 from an angry and inflamed eye, and on this account I am 
 obliged, in addressing you, to use the hand of a secretary, 
 and let me add, in honor of woman's rights, that it is a 
 feminine hand. 
 
 With warm congratulations and hearty good wishes, 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 G. S. HiLLARD. 
 
 A request to lecture in Plymouth Church brought 
 the following response : — 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — If the Plymouth Church was 
 mine, you should have it just as often as you wanted it, and 
 free too. But except to preach in, it is not mine, alas ! but 
 is held by trustees, who have to extend to the secularities, 
 and who must be bargained with, even with filthy lucre. 
 But two facts it behooves me to mention : first, that, as I be- 
 lieve the church has engagements for lectures on the dates 
 you specify ; and then lectures are a dead failure in Brook- 
 lyn, — not a single one has begun to pay expenses. Are 
 you rich? Do you deal in superfluous money? Do you 
 want to use some of it ? Yes, Dickens sent me word after 
 speaking in our church never to build another, as I should 
 not get so good an one. I mean to take his advice. I 
 have noticed the very favorable words of you and your lec- 
 ture in the papers. I congratulate you. 
 I am very truly yours, 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
 It is incredible that barely a period of thirty years 
 lies between the days when a woman's appearance on 
 the lecture platform was in the nature of social phe- 
 nomena and the present, when it is a matter of daily 
 and universal experience. 
 
222 Kate Field 
 
 Although Miss Field was a very earnest woman, and 
 would have been quite capable of going to the stake 
 for the sake of her convictions, she was yet extremely 
 sensitive to public opinion and appearance. How- 
 ever engrossing might be her theme, she never forgot 
 that she was a lady by birth and breeding, and she 
 was hampered by conventionalisms in a way that other 
 women on the platform at the time were not. Mrs. 
 Livermore had the married woman's freedom and 
 prestige, with a marvellous greatness of experience, 
 too, lying behind her for her noble work in the Sani- 
 tary Commission; Lucy Stone and Miss Anthony 
 were totally absorbed in their cause of the political 
 enfranchisement of women ; Anna Dickinson, with 
 her ardor and eloquence, was a law unto herself, and 
 all these women in varying ways had the gift of the 
 genius that well cuts its own channels. Miss Field 
 had the divine gift, too, to a very remarkable degree ; 
 but she was younger; she had been for ten years 
 an acknowledged favorite in the choicest, the most 
 exclusive and not unfrequently conventional social 
 life, and she shrank with a nervous dread that no 
 words could describe from a public career. Yet she 
 obeyed the voice that called her to go on. She 
 wrote two other lectures at this time, — one on 
 Charles Dickens, and one drawn from her experience 
 and observations in the Adirondacks. The press 
 notices of these lectures, which extended over two 
 years, — from the spring of 1869 to that of 187 1, — 
 hundreds of which are preserved in her scrapbooks, 
 are curiously glowing in their praise. On her ap- 
 pearance in New York with her second lecture, " The 
 Tribune " said : — 
 
Lecturing and Writing 223 
 
 " Miss Kate Field appeared in Steinway Hall, last even- 
 ing, and, in a happily devised and smoothly written narra- 
 tive, described her personal experiences in the Adirondack 
 woods. The occasion was uncommonly agreeable, and was 
 enjoyed by a large audience, in which the intellect, cul- 
 ture, and fashion of the city were well represented. Miss 
 Field has but recently adopted the lecturer's vocation. Her 
 brilliancy of mind, however, and her soft, gentle, refined, 
 yet piquant manner of delivery, have already gained for her 
 a high professional rank. 
 
 " Miss Field's discourse closed with a touching mention 
 of her visit to John Brown's grave in the Adirondack coun- 
 try and a tender tribute to his memory." 
 
 For a column and a half this pleasant appreciation 
 ran on in unqualified praise. This period of her lec- 
 turing resulted, therefore, not only in a success of 
 estimation, in considerable financial profit, and in a 
 great gain for herself of endurance and poise, but 
 her work also contributed materially to the breaking 
 down of prevailing prejudices regarding women's part 
 in the affairs of life. Although over thirty years of 
 age at this time, Miss Field looked ten years younger. 
 Not strictly beautiful, she had the effect of beauty, and 
 she had grace, distinction, and exquisite taste in dress. 
 She appealed to the eye as well as to the ear. Wil- 
 liam Lloyd Garrison once remarked that it was worth 
 an admission fee merely to see Kate Field on the 
 platform. Then, with these incidental advantages, 
 she had vigorous ideas, exceptional charm of literary 
 quality, and a voice of rare beauty. 
 
 It is not possible, without employing terms that 
 would, in this day, savor of exaggeration, to re- 
 cord adequately the enthusiasm that attended Miss 
 
2 24 Kate Field 
 
 Field's lecturing experiences. As a speaker she 
 never equalled Mrs. Livermore in spontaneous and 
 impassioned power and the magnetism of genius ; 
 nor was she ever calculated to make the peculiarly 
 vivid and electric impression that Miss Anna Dickin- 
 son made during that period. Still her place was 
 unique. She had great social prestige, and she went 
 out from Boston with the stamp of approval from men 
 and women whose names were held in national esteem. 
 To have the indorsement of Wendell Phillips, Mrs. 
 Julia Ward Howe, Dr. Holmes, Edwin P. Whipple, 
 and Henry James was to carry a letter of unlimited 
 social credit everywhere, for the Modern Athens has 
 always been a recognized Mecca of social and intel- 
 lectual power, and its cachet rather absolute. 
 
 There is no such absolute interpretation of spiritual 
 qualit}' as the voice, and in this was Kate Field's most 
 felicitous gift. Her enunciation was pure, her Eng- 
 lish was choice, her use of language perfect in its 
 values. The scholarly Boston "Advertiser" said of 
 one of her early appearances : — 
 
 " Miss Field's voice is exceptionally musical, sweet, and 
 agreeable ; and it is but the simple truth to say that she 
 manages it admirably. With a little practice she will find 
 it easy to deliver her lecture in the largest hall, and we 
 prophesy that, if she goes on in the path upon which she 
 has entered, her refined and modest mamier, her artistic 
 perception of the power of light and shade in speech, and 
 her native gifts of mind, will make her everywhere 
 acceptable." 
 
 It was an impressive hour w^hen Kate Field stood 
 in Music Hall and told to an audience that crowded 
 it to the very doors the story of John Brown. In this 
 lecture she said : — 
 
Lecturing and Writing 225 
 
 " I could not leave the North Woods without making 
 a pilgrimage to John Brown's grave. What ! that humble, 
 unpainted farmhouse John Brown's home ? I stood upon 
 the threshold and knocked in vain. Trying the door, it 
 opened ; and venturing to enter, I saw signs of habitation, 
 but none of comfort. There seemed to be no angel in the 
 house. A portrait of John Brown, a few memorial wreaths 
 snatched from some recent grave, were the only visible re- 
 mains of sentiment. Several men were pitching hay in a 
 field near by, and when I hailed them, one sad man came 
 forward to bid me return. He was the owner of the farm, 
 for John Brown's homestead is no longer the property of 
 his family, although it was his wish that there they should 
 remain. 
 
 " ' I am Alexis Hinckley,' said the thin, sad man. ' My 
 sister married John Brown's son, Salmon, who went West 
 and is now in California. Mrs. Brown was very lonely 
 without any of her children, and in order to join Salmon, 
 sold the farm in 1863 for $800. She did not want it to go 
 out of the family, and so I bought it. But I do not feel 
 like staying here any longer. I buried my wife last winter. 
 The place is not what it used to be, and, in fact, I must sell 
 it. I have offered it for $2000.' 
 
 " ' Does that plot of land go with the farm ? ' I asked, 
 looking from the window where ' John Brown's body lay 
 mould'ring in the ground.' 
 
 " ' Oh, no. That is reserved by Mrs. Brown. There are 
 two hundred and forty- four acres, and ;?iooo worth of 
 timber.' 
 
 " So John Brown's farm was for sale." 
 
 Telling this story, the $2000 were, within forty- 
 eight hours, subscribed, twenty persons, of whom 
 Miss Field was herself one, and Mrs. Waterston (n^e 
 Quincy) another, giving each $100, and thus was 
 
 IS 
 
2 26 Kate Field 
 
 John Brown's farm purchased to be held as historic 
 ground; this act of national justice being entirely 
 due to Kate Field. 
 
 These two years of lecturing carried her as far west 
 as Illinois and as far south as Virginia. She appeared 
 in hundreds of the smaller cities and towns, under- 
 going the inevitable fatigue and hardships of travel, 
 but making hosts of friends, acquiring very valuable 
 experience and also making a considerable amount of 
 money. On her arrival in Chicago, Anna Dickinson 
 met her at a dinner at Robert Collyer's and thus wrote 
 of Miss Field : — 
 
 " Witty, pungent, concise of speech, hating shams with a 
 royal hatred ; with beautiful blue eyes that penetrate deep, 
 while they reveal depths, and firm mouth that dominates 
 the delicate face, and seems to say to it and to any weary- 
 ing that lies beyond it, ' Advance ; you have your work to 
 do, your plan to accomplish ; do and accomplish them.' " 
 
 In Washington, where she appeared on Dec. lO, 
 1870, members of Congress and several Senators 
 listened to her. " They gave me undivided atten- 
 tion," writes Kate to her mother, " but less applause 
 than anywhere. I thought they were not pleased, 
 but I am assured that they were delighted and did 
 not applaud because they were listening intently." 
 
 Constantly was she sending money to her mother 
 and urging upon her every indulgence. " You are a 
 darling, and I 'm not half good enough for such a 
 mother," she writes in one letter. The rush of life 
 through this period is indicated in her letters to Mrs. 
 Field. She lectures in New Haven and takes the 
 eleven o'clock train afterward for New York, where 
 she arrives in a driving rain and is up and off on an 
 
Lecturing and Writing 227 
 
 eight o'clock morning train for Buffalo. She speaks 
 in a small town in New York, and after the lecture 
 drives ten miles to Batavia and takes the train for 
 Albany. On this particular journey she says : — 
 
 " Then at West Point Mr. Bigelow, formerly minister to 
 France, came in, and we had a very interesting talk about 
 Mexico and France." 
 
 At another time she reaches Poughkeepsie at five 
 P. M., where she is to lecture in the evening, and in 
 the interim drives to Vassar College. From Madison, 
 Wisconsin, under date of Feb. 23, 1871, she writes to 
 her mother: — 
 
 " An excellent house last. The University and Legis- 
 lature turned out, and Lieutenant-Governor Pound, a very 
 nice man, presided. This morning I visited the Capitol 
 with Governor and Mrs. Pound." 
 
 Sometimes the houses are not excellent, after all 
 this midnight travelling and rush and effort, but she 
 accepts things as they come. All the time she is 
 sending money to pay debts and for her mother's 
 comfort. 
 
 " I enclose draft for six hundred and fifty dollars. 
 Make it payable to Uncle Milt," she says. " I hope 
 this spring to pay him entirely." . . . And later: 
 " Of the $250 I sent you yesterday pay Uncle Milton 
 $50. That squares things with him. ... In next 
 letter I '11 remit $650, the profits of last week." And 
 again : " Yesterday I sent you $250 from Auburn." 
 And again referring to a relative, she says : " I 
 
 gave $20 for clothes the other day, and shall 
 
 give her $20 more for Christmas, and there stop." 
 
 Finance is a very important matter. The spending 
 
228 Kate Field 
 
 and apportionment of money is an unerring index 
 to character, and Miss Field's accuracy, promptness, 
 and moral integrity, as well as the generosity which 
 always so signally characterized her, is revealed in 
 this glimpse of the constant conduct of her finances. 
 She was as prompt in repaying an advance from a 
 wealthy relative as she would have been to a relent- 
 less creditor. Invariably, in every relation she was 
 the soul of honor. She was always very easily 
 touched by kindness, and of a lecture season in 
 Washington she writes to her mother: — 
 
 " The Washington people treated me in the most affec- 
 tionate manner. One landlady would accept no payment, 
 saying that the pleasure of my company was sufficient com- 
 pensation, while the other (where I lodged) made me a 
 present. Both of course were women who had seen better 
 days. The Southern women are deeply interested in the 
 women movement." 
 
 Her lecture on Charles Dickens was one of the 
 most artistic and beautiful of literary lectures. She 
 repeated it with great effect in Boston, New York, 
 Chicago, Washington, Brooklyn, — in Henry Ward 
 Beecher's church, Mr. Beecher himself presiding, — 
 and the lecture is one that was not only impressive as 
 oratory, but which may well be embalmed in litera- 
 ture. On her delivery of this lecture in the Globe 
 Theatre in Boston, Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton 
 wrote to the New York " Tribune " : — 
 
 " One saw among this audience the poet Longfellow, in 
 company with his friend, James T. Fields of ' The Atlan- 
 tic,' the Hon. George S. Hillard, David A. Wasson, Dr. L. 
 H. Lothrop, E. P. Whipple, the Rev. Petroleum V. Nasby, 
 and others. 
 
Lecturing and Writing 229 
 
 "The curtain rising, a slight, graceful girl is disclosed, 
 with floating hair, ' outwardly brown but inwardly golden,' 
 and clear, honest eyes, which insure her welcome before she 
 opens her lips. The applause which salutes her is only less 
 enthusiastic than that with which she is summoned before 
 the curtain after it has fallen upon her brilliant peroration. 
 She wore blue silk, with an overdress of misty white lace, 
 and made a pleasant picture as she stood among the 
 flowers with which admiring friends had made the scene 
 beautiful." 
 
 Miss Field continued to give this lecture on 
 Dickens throughout her life, its last delivery being, 
 indeed, in Honolulu, where she gave it only a few 
 months before her death, for the benefit of a kinder- 
 garten. Somewhere about 1883 she gave it in New 
 York before a notable audience. Very lovely she 
 looked, in a costume of dark-blue velvet and silk, 
 which brought out the pure, perfect brightness of her 
 face, — that spirituelle beauty which held one with its 
 irresistible spell, — as she stood by the little table 
 laden with rarest flowers, where great baskets of 
 scarlet roses and calla lilies, with bending sprays of 
 mignonette and cluster of violets gleaming through 
 trailing greenery, made beautiful the place. It was 
 the last of a matinee course that she had been en- 
 gaged in giving in New York at the pretty little 
 University Club Theatre, where delighted audiences 
 listened to her. 
 
 In this interpretation of Dickens Kate is unsur- 
 passed in her swift, subtle insight, her epigrammatic 
 vigor, her fine touch, and her appreciation of the 
 values of life. One found in her lecture on Dickens 
 two separate aims: one to present a living, lifelike 
 portrait of the great genius in her consideration of 
 
230 Kate Field 
 
 him as the actor, dramatist, journalist, novehst, — as 
 the merry-maker, the poet, the friend of humanity; 
 the other fulfilment of the lecture, and one that 
 seemed an outgrowth rather than a conscious aim, 
 was to give a most inspiriting, vital, and suggestive 
 presentation of thought, in a manner that ennobled 
 all who listened. In it she said : " Great genius is 
 only great good sense;" "The price of success is 
 industry;" and "Who that is head and shoulder 
 above his fellows escapes misinterpretation?" she 
 questioned. Again : " They who have great ideas 
 fight for them," and somewhere in passing she spoke 
 of " the blessed trinity of love, devotion, and self- 
 sacrifice." Of Dickens she said : " The watchword 
 of his life was duty; " and one silently thought how 
 truly the same words might be said of herself, — this 
 woman in her simple elegance standing before her 
 audience, — with the earnest, beautiful eyes ; the 
 spiritual loveliness of face and form ; the graceful, 
 exquisite refinement that surrounded her like an 
 atmosphere. Rarely does one find such an hour of 
 spiritual uplifting as was this in hearing Kate Field 
 in a lecture in which she touched the deepest chords 
 of humanity. 
 
 Her lecture on Charles Dickens closed with this 
 paragraph : — 
 
 " Dickens, the uncommercial traveller for the great house 
 of Human Interest Brothers, has made his last journey. 
 The light of Gad's Hill has gone out ; the light of the 
 world is dimmed. . . . He lies with England's best and 
 greatest, with tuneful Handel gazing heavenward above 
 him, with Garrick by his side, with Johnson at his feet, 
 with Dryden, Chaucer, Spenser, and Milton near by ; with 
 a mighty congregation of kings and queens, philosophers 
 
Lecturing and Writing 231 
 
 and generals, to sing hosannas as they welcome him to this 
 city of the dead. But mightier is that congregation of liv- 
 ing, humble souls silently filling the sombre abbey from 
 noon to night, treading lightly lest the dead be waked, cast- 
 ing flowers into the still open grave until the dark void is 
 made bright and beautiful as if with the bloom of everlast- 
 ing peace and hope. Last to linger is a woman, listening 
 to the voice of Memory as it repeats the words of him who 
 lies so silently at her feet : ' O woman, God-beloved in old 
 Jerusalem ! The best among us need deal lightly with thy 
 faults, if only for the punishment thy nature will endure in 
 bearing heavy evidence against us on the day of judgment.' 
 " This world's day of judgment has come to you, Charles 
 Dickens, and this grateful woman casts humble flowers 
 upon your grave for your loyalty to duty, for your loyalty to 
 literature, for your loyalty to the drama, for your loyalty to 
 friendship, for your love of humanity, for your love of truth, 
 — Ipving it better than Shakespeare and Shakespeare's 
 country, better than Irving and Irving's country, — for your 
 love of children, for your tenderness towards the outcast of 
 her sex. And as she lets fall the last pansy in her hand 
 she murmurs : ' The old, old fashion. The fashion that 
 came in with our first parents, and will last unchanged until 
 our race has run its course, and the wide firmament is rolled 
 up like a scroll. The old, old fashion — death ! O, thank 
 God, all who see it, for that older fashion yet of immortal- 
 ity ! and look upon him, angels of young children, with 
 regards not quite estranged now the swift river bears him 
 to the ocean.' " 
 
 These three lectures — the one on Dickens being 
 most in demand — filled the time, and yet with all the 
 rush of life Kate found days for occasional writing. 
 One article, called " Woven of Many Threads," ap- 
 peared in the New York " Herald ; " and she suggested 
 
232 Kate Field 
 
 to Mr. Whitelaw Reid a paper for " The Tribune " 
 to be called " Leaves from a Lecturer's Notebook," to 
 which proposition he replied warmly, accepting it. 
 
 The sense of movement conveyed by Kate's letters 
 to her mother can only be compared to the whir of 
 wings through the air. Seldom is she in one place 
 for two consecutive days. One night in Buffalo after 
 the lecture an intelligent quadroon came up, saying 
 she must speak to Miss Field, and exclaimed : " God 
 bless you for what you have said of John Brown ! 
 It was sublime, and it was as much as I could do to 
 keep from shouting." Miss Field records the fun of 
 a Buffalo sleigh-ride the next day " with the avenue 
 as gay as the Corso in Rome." Lecturing once 
 under Mr. Daly's management in New York, the suc- 
 cess was so assured that Mr. Daly wished her to re- 
 peat it on Christmas night of 1870, which she did. 
 " I am very sorry not to be at home for Christmas," 
 she writes to her mother, who at this time was living 
 in Joy Street, Boston, at No. 21, "but I must think 
 of our business interests first." Lecturing in Hart- 
 ford, she was entertained by Mrs. Jewell, — the wife 
 of the Governor, to whom Miss Field was much 
 attracted. In all these tours she was quite by way 
 of being a guest at the home of the Governor, the 
 College president, or the chief magnate, in some 
 way, of city or town. Occasionally her travelling 
 experiences included a night like this, — to return 
 from her lecture to be called at three A. M. for a 
 train ; change cars at six and reach her next destina- 
 tion in the afternoon, with her evening appearance 
 before her. There was no complaining at all of 
 these hardships. In one town there was a very small 
 audience, and Miss Field insisted on returning one 
 
Lecturing and Writing 233 
 
 third of the fee. " It surprised and touched my 
 good friend," she said, " but he was a teacher, and I 
 could not bear to take money out of a teacher's 
 pocket." 
 
 From Cincinnati she wrote: — 
 
 " Murat Halstead, Editor of 'The Commercial,' to whom 
 Mr. Reid gave me a letter, has been very kind. To-day 
 he drove me to see the sights and then took me to dine 
 with some pleasant wealthy people living at Clifton, a 
 suburb of beautiful residences." 
 
 In February of 1871, she lectured in St. Louis, and 
 she writes that as she went to church and heard Rev. 
 Dr. Eliot, " the old times quite came back listening 
 to his gentle voice." Hon. Wayman Crow introduced 
 her on the evening of her lecture, and drives and a 
 number of festivities marked her stay in her native 
 city. 
 
 In New York City about this time she sees Fech- 
 ter, whom she finds, " passionate, natural, and in 
 earnest. He is always sympathetic and knows how 
 to make love, which is a luxury," she adds. 
 
 Lecturing again in Washington, she writes : — 
 
 " Chief Justice Drake of the Court of Claims came up to 
 me, told me that he was an old friend of my father's and 
 that I looked and acted so like him as to almost bring him 
 to life." 
 
 Through all these years and, fortunately for the 
 world, continuing until the autumn of 1893, — there 
 was a serene star shining in the firmament of prog- 
 ress whose influence was marvellous in its penetra- 
 tive and permeating power, — a star that radiated a 
 light not only of illumination but of energy. This 
 
2 34 Kate Field 
 
 great power for human progress was known to the 
 world as Lucy Stone, — a woman who was a very in- 
 carnation of heavenly forces and who builded better 
 than she knew all through her long and beneficent 
 life. She lived with her face toward the dawn, and 
 while her own specific work was for the political 
 enfranchisement of women, her power was so great 
 and so united with the divine energy that it operated 
 in other ways, producing results on lines which Mrs. 
 Stone did not, at the moment, mentally define. 
 George Eliot suggests that by desiring what is per- 
 fectly good, even when we don't quite know what it is 
 and cannot do what we would, we are part of the 
 divine power against evil, widening the skirts of light 
 and making the darkness narrower. This deep truth 
 was signally illustrated in the life of Lucy Stone and 
 a group of noble women of whom she was one, — a 
 group originally represented by Lucretia Mott, Lydia 
 Maria Child, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Susan 
 B. Anthony, Mary A. Livermore, and Elizabeth 
 Cady Stanton, — a constellation that will shine for- 
 ever in the records of womanhood. To this group, 
 individually and collectively, is due the opening of all 
 the larger life of women in the industrial, the educa- 
 tional, and the professional lines. To opportunities 
 that these women had made possible, Kate Field 
 owed an infinite debt and one that, in the later years 
 of her life, she came to fully comprehend and acknowl- 
 edge. Noble as were all these women, it would not 
 yet be possible for a writer who had enjoyed the in- 
 effable privilege of dwelling in the same city with 
 Lucy Stone and seeing, in the sweet atmosphere of 
 friendly proximity, this morning star among women, 
 not to pause in the record to offer special tribute of 
 
Lecturing and Writing 235 
 
 gratitude to the serene, resistless, and ever-ennobling 
 influence of her personality. 
 
 Miss Field's unique individuality impressed every 
 one, and a little reflection of this is seen in some 
 playful letters of her friend, Richard Watson Gilder, 
 now so widely recognized as a poet of exquisite 
 gifts, and the editor of the " Century Magazine." The 
 success attending Kate's lecture on Dickens had led 
 her, as we have seen, to prepare a book under the 
 title of " Pen Photographs of Charles Dickens' Read- 
 ings," which she called " the inspiration of gratitude " 
 for twenty-five of the most delightful and instructive 
 evenings of her life. After the death of Dickens the 
 work was republished in London by the Triibners. 
 Miss Field opened this with one of her vivid, electric 
 transcriptions of the welcome to Mr. Dickens in 
 Boston and in New York, passing on to a truly 
 photographic picture of " the desk of the reader," as 
 he appeared before his audiences, describing through 
 some dozen chapters his different readings. In clos- 
 ing this volume Miss Field says : " Thank God that 
 morals have something to do with art, and that the 
 genius of Dickens has realized this solemn fact." 
 
 After the appearance of these " Pen Photographs " 
 Mr. Richard Watson Gilder wrote to Miss Field : 
 
 Miss Kate Field. 
 
 Dear Individual (As if it were Mr. Kate Field, Dear 
 Sir), — I want to thank you for your "Pen Photographs," 
 and to apologize, in a manner, for what I send you by way 
 of acknowledgment. And this is the apology : that there 
 is no other book wherein is name or initial of mine than 
 the Howarth poems, wherein I perform the humble part of 
 organ-grinder to the show. As to your book ... I must 
 
236 Kate Field 
 
 prolong my note enough to tell you that nothing of the 
 kind, since Dickens, has had the same effect upon me. 
 I confess to a happy period upon the boat " Providence " 
 this morning, of intermingled giggles and moistenings of the 
 eyes, as on that memorable night when I heard and saw 
 that man of blessed memory. Henceforth, O woman 1 the 
 world o^&i, you a debt as well as it does Dickens' family. 
 If that is your Naples — die. 
 
 I have an insane desire — being full to overflowing of 
 my little glimpse into the Newport Paradise — to say many 
 things to you here with this pen on this paper. But as 
 I have no excuse for screeding, I will put in the stopple, 
 only adding this : before being critical on the little volume, 
 read again the last paragraph of the preface, and see the 
 possible prevarication that lies so near the surface. Ah, do 
 not misunderstand me ! I refer to the last clause, and only 
 mean that to stand up before the critics, these, as a whole, 
 need the bolstering of circumstances. The "Daily" will 
 take the liberty of saying something, however insufficient, 
 about the photographs, and this " we " will always be only 
 too happy to climb into any windows, through any pig- 
 pens, after any oars, that are to row " K. F." to any haven 
 where she would be. 
 
 Farewell, Witch. I like you, and I 'm afraid of you. 
 
 Richard Watson Gilder. 
 
 Another characteristic letter from this delightful 
 poet and wit, dated " The Place of Abominations, 
 otherwise the Capitol," ran as follows : — 
 
 Dear K. F., — For the reason that you shall not forget 
 me, I write unto you. What a glorious, interesting, " grand, 
 gloomy, and peculiar " letter was the last you wrote me. 
 Missing such missives, I awake to the consciousness that, if 
 I expect to receive the same, I must deign replies thereto. 
 I have sent you one or two pointed reminders of my exist- 
 
Lecturing and Writing 237 
 
 ence, which I hope you received. One was the St. James 
 paragraph j the other was — well, I guess you " waked 
 and remembered and understood," didn't you? 
 
 You said something about having a fine photograph taken 
 when you were in New York. I did n't dare then to hint a 
 desire, but since then I have waxed bolder, to wit : — 
 
 My darling Miss Kate, 
 If it is n't too late, 
 May I aspire 
 So high and so higher 
 As humbly to ask 
 For a pho. of the mask, 
 
 "which I mean to say," of your face (all faces are masks, 
 nevertheless) . Rhyme and unreason aside, you see what 
 I am trying to muster courage to say, " and your petitioner 
 will ever pray," etc. 
 
 Questions. 
 
 1 . How are you in body and soul ? 
 
 2. How is your mother, ditto, ditto? 
 
 3. What are you doing? 
 
 4. What are you trying to do ? 
 
 5. What do you want to do? 
 
 6. When are you coming to New York again ? 
 
 7. When shall we two meet again? 
 
 8. Will you show your generous forgiveness of my not 
 having written lately by answering this soon? 
 
 9. Will you be horrified to learn that I write monthly for 
 Scribner's '•' Hours at Home "? 
 
 10. Will you please not try to find out what I write 
 therein until I can send you a proof-corrected copy 
 thereof? 
 
 Please believe me your sincere friend, 
 
 R. Watson Gilder. 
 
238 Kate Field 
 
 Among the words of encouragement she prized 
 were these from the poet and novelist, Mrs. EHza- 
 beth Stoddard : ■ — 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — Mr. Stoddard says he will do all he 
 can to further the growth of William's . . . 
 
 How wonderful that you have the interest, courage, and 
 energy to do such things as you do do ! How do you do it ? 
 It is line, I think, and I like to see the meaning and inten- 
 tion in your face. It would be a nice thing if you and I 
 could become friends, — friends in one sense ; that is, the 
 whole double sense is a lost art, — to mean, I mean. 
 
 We should both be pleased to see you here, and I hope 
 you may find time to come without ceremony. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Elizabeth Stoddard. 
 
 To the "Atlantic Monthly," Kate contributed a 
 paper on Fechter about this time, which incited sev- 
 eral pleasant letters from literary friends, among 
 which are the following : — 
 
 Mrs. Botta wrote : — 
 
 October 29, 1870. 
 
 Dear Kate Field, — I am not going to write you a let- 
 ter, but only a line, to say how delighted I am with your 
 " Fechter " in the " Atlantic." It tells just what one would 
 wish to know, and yet many things are already known by 
 instinct, that he was the true Prince, noble in all his senti- 
 ments, a gentleman in all his instincts. He is happy in 
 having such a biographer. . . . 
 
 Always affectionately, 
 
 Anne C. L. Botta. 
 
 And Mrs. Moulton also wrote : — 
 
 September i, 1870. 
 Dear little Queen Katherine (Queen of Hearts), — I 
 kiss in respectful admiration the small hands of your gra- 
 
Lecturing and Writing 239 
 
 cious majesty, for I have just been reading in the September 
 " Atlantic " " Charles Albert Fechter," and admire you and 
 him through you immensely. I believe I know what is 
 good. It does n't take much for that, and this article of 
 yours is very good. I am proud of you ! They tell me 
 that your ease, self-possession, and knowledge of stage busi- 
 ness were a surprise to those who know you best. Laura 
 has a great deal more faith in you than before she saw you 
 play. She says she knows you can make a theatrical suc- 
 cess, as you have already made a literary one. 
 Affectionately, 
 
 Louise Chandler Moulton. 
 
 A characteristic letter from Mr. Samuel Bowles, 
 the distinguished editor of the Springfield (Mass.) 
 " Republican," — one out of dozens from him which 
 Miss Field had preserved, — runs as follows : — 
 
 Springfield, Mass., June 15, 1870. 
 My dear Kate Field, — This note is from one of your 
 distant and unseen admirers. He is an indescribable sort 
 of a chap, well enough to know, but not well enough to be 
 on very intimate terms with, — a child of nature and, the 
 mountains, with an occasional weakness for the distillations 
 of corn ; irrepressible in his enthusiasm ; harmless enough, 
 so far as I know, but not quite holding the respect of the 
 best society in Colorado. Thus I give a character for your 
 new " brother." 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Samuel Bowles. 
 
 From Mr. Charles G. Leland, then editing " The 
 Philadelphia Press," are also preserved a great num- 
 ber of letters, of which one — which suggests its own 
 commentary on the journalism of that period — thus 
 runs : — 
 
240 Kate Field 
 
 What does Miss Field mean by saying that she cannot 
 write funny articles ? I have just read for the first time 
 your "Shadows of Christmas Eve," and am charmed with 
 it. It is melancholy, — of course I do not suppose there is 
 a lady writer in America who knows what cheerfulness is, — 
 but it is well adapted to please our readers, and respice ad 
 finem should be every editor's motto. The idea of a series 
 of living pictures as you have sketched them is very good, 
 and might be again employed and applied to fashions, as 
 in describing ladies as they "shop" along the street, or 
 to celebrities in New York, going by or to the public build- 
 ings. However, I am not prescribing — only gossiping on 
 my own private account. Whenever you want your reward 
 in money, make out your account and draw on our cashier, 
 J. G. L. Brown, giving him a day or two notice. 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Charles G. Leland. 
 
 Miss Field's connection with " The Tribune," which, 
 virtually, continued during her life, seems to have 
 been initiated with the following letters from Mr. 
 Greeley and Mr. Reid : — 
 
 New York, June 27, 1869. 
 
 The bearer. Miss Kate Field, who has long been con- 
 nected with " The Tribune," is to represent us this summer 
 at various watering-places, and other summer resorts. Any 
 courteous kindness that may be extended to her will be 
 gratefully appreciated by this journal. 
 
 Whitelaw REiD,/<?r Mr. Greeley. 
 
 Mr. Whitelaw Reid writes : — 
 
 New York, August 12, 1869. 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — Coming back yesterday from a 
 week's visit West, I found your last two letters here, one in 
 type, the other waiting on my desk. You will see probably 
 before this reaches you that they have been given the place 
 
Lecturing and Writing 241 
 
 of honor in eight columns of correspondence which we pub- 
 lish to-morrow morning. 
 
 I was on the point of writing to Ticknor and Fields to find 
 out whether you had committed suicide up in the Adiron- 
 dacks, or what had become of you. We should have been 
 glad to have had the Adirondacks letter two weeks ago ; 
 still I take it for granted your sufferings up there were too 
 great for earlier expression. 
 
 What are your plans for the rest of the season ? 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 Whitelaw Reid. 
 
 This letter follows : — 
 
 New York, September, 1869. 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — Yours of the 7th came to-day on 
 the heels of a note I had sent you last night. I 'm delighted 
 to have you growl. Do so whenever you please, and I '11 
 keep on cutting you up just as I please, and just as I prom- 
 ised you at the outset. Is it a bargain? 
 
 You know somebody warned me not to engage you. 
 " You never can get along with her unless you give her her 
 own way in everything, and that you couldn't do." I 
 thought we might succeed better than the false prophet 
 predicted. After a summer's work, of which there has n't 
 been half enough, I 'm satisfied. If you are not, you ought 
 to be. That 's all. 
 
 Of course I knew when I saw the letter about your " tog- 
 geiy" that there was something wrong, but I confess I 
 had n't thought it deserving of quite so serious epithets as 
 you apply to it. You will have to learn, my sensitive little 
 friend, that people in public or quasi-public positions get 
 all sorts of criticism, and must quietly bear it and make no 
 sign. Witness our own angelic meekness under the not 
 always absolutely considerate criticisms of our dearest ene- 
 mies of Twenty-Third Street. 
 
 Cordially yours, 
 
 ^ Whitelaw Reid, 
 
 16 
 
242 Kate Field 
 
 Again Mr. Reid writes : — 
 
 New York, Sept. 29, 1869. 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — I am a little sorry about your 
 decision not to " do " Ida Lewis, and still you are quite 
 right in not attempting to keep too many irons in the fire. 
 Perhaps you will be glad to know that your Adirondacks 
 letters were a success, the first one particularly. The sec- 
 ond happened to please the publisher of "The Tribtme " 
 and some other people who take a commercial view of such 
 things. But I was immensely amused by your innocent 
 suggestion that since we took out the first-class notice of 
 somebody's hotel, we ought to take out the first-class notice 
 of " The Tribune " also, on the ground that both came 
 under the general rule against gratuitous advertising. Bless 
 your innocent heart, do you suppose that we have any rule 
 against advertising ourselves in the paper? 
 
 I don't believe I shall tell you now the person who gave 
 me the advice about you against which you remonstrate so 
 characteristically. It has proved untrue, and so is not 
 worth minding, but some time when you are here I may 
 tell you. 
 
 Your complaint that "The Tribune " doesn't pay enough 
 is sound on abstract principles. I think the same myself, 
 and should n't make the slightest objection to its doubling 
 my salary ; but there is a view of the question which in 
 spite of my having already given, you won't look at. You 
 forget that though our rates are below those of the maga- 
 zines, we can furnish you fifty times the market the magazine 
 can. For example, if you had written during the season, 
 we would have taken a dozen Adirondack letters. Where 's 
 the magazine that would print more than one article ? 
 
 Hoping that you may have the best and most remunera- 
 tive lecture season ever heard of, and that you may come 
 out of it not too strong-minded, I am. 
 Always very truly yours, 
 
 Whitelaw Reid. 
 
Lecturing and Writing 243 
 
 In some hour of enthusiasm to assist John Brown's 
 family, Kate apparently wrote to Mr. Emerson for 
 sympathy, and received the following reply : — 
 
 Concord, Oct. 28, 1869. 
 Dear Miss Field, — Forgive me for not answering your 
 note in time. I am in these days enchained by an engage- 
 ment to my publishers, which just now hardly leaves me 
 a respectable degree of freedom. I do not know enough 
 of the present condition of the Brown family to judge of 
 the desirableness to them of your project. I once passed 
 by the farm when it did not look attractive to a settler. 
 One of the daughters was for some weeks in my house, and 
 I do not recall any expression of attachment to the place. 
 It would be graceful from the State or from individuals, — 
 this gift, — but I believe their removal was their choice. The 
 land has already John Brown's mark indelibly on it. So I 
 wait to be fired by hearing your speech, which hitherto has 
 been denied me. 
 
 With kind regards, 
 
 R. W. Emerson. 
 
 All during this period Kate and her mother were 
 living in the historic old West End of Boston. The 
 simple, refined home that Mrs. Field made in Joy 
 Street was one quite in accord with the spirit of the 
 best Boston life of that day, — the true New Eng- 
 land spirit of high thinking and plain living. The 
 Whipples lived just around the corner in Pinckney 
 Street ; Dr. and Mrs. Howe were living in Mt. Vernon 
 Street ; Miss Alcott, coming in from Concord for east 
 wind and the inspiration of seclusion, had rooms in 
 Hayward Place, cheerfully christening her abode as 
 " Gamp's Garret." James Freeman Clarke was ear- 
 nestly preaching his gospel of love ; Emerson was to 
 be heard now and then of an evening; Mrs. Liver- 
 
244 Kate Field 
 
 more's great lectures were events of the day; Mr. 
 and Mrs. James T. Fields made their hospitable home 
 a literary centre. Left stranded now on Charles 
 Street, from which the tide of fashion has ebbed, the 
 rear of the house commands an enchanting vista up 
 the Charles River ; and no one who has seen it can 
 wonder that Mrs. Fields clings to this home where 
 so many notable people have been entertained, 
 Thackeray, Dickens, Arthur Hugh Clough, Miss 
 Martineau, Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Lowell, 
 Dr. Holmes, Matthew Arnold, Whittier, Elizabeth 
 Phelps, Kate Field, and many another whose name is 
 a part of the world's treasures, have lingered under 
 this hospitable roof. In the chamber above the 
 library Emerson wrote his " Voluntaries," and after 
 breakfast called his host and hostess into his room to 
 read to them the new poem, which was flying around 
 the room in loose pages. After reading it aloud, he 
 questioned them as to what its title should be, and 
 Mrs. Fields suggested the perfect one it bears. 
 
 The social life of the Boston of these days was of a 
 quality unsurpassed in any city in the world. Mrs. 
 Howe, to whom the choicest circles in the cities of 
 the Old World have opened, and whose range of com- 
 parison is so widely inclusive, has never, as she says, 
 found any society superior to this which included the 
 famous men and women who made what may well be 
 called the golden age of Boston. Among the most 
 pleasant of the social occasions were the Sunday 
 evenings of Mr. and Mrs. Whipple, which were re- 
 unions of the most brilliant people. Prof Benjamin 
 J. Peirce, Prof, and Mrs. Agassiz, Dr. Holmes, James 
 Freeman Clarke, Dr. Parsons, Charles Sumner, when 
 he was in Boston, the noble John A. Andrew, Mr. 
 
Lecturing and Writing 245 
 
 and Mrs. Fields, the Alcotts, Emerson, John Boyle 
 O'Reilly, Gen. Francis A. Walker, the beautiful 
 Mrs. Anagnos, the lovely elder daughter of Dr. and 
 Mrs. Howe, and Mr. Anagnos, whose work for the 
 blind is so eminent, — these and others of note were 
 among the guests. Mrs. Howe and Henry James, 
 phre, were always brilliantly sparring, with the wit 
 that characterized both and the easy familiarity of old 
 friends whose acquaintance dated back to the time 
 when both were residents of New York, and when 
 Mr. James often called upon the brilliant Miss Ward 
 in her father's house. Into this charmed life Mrs. 
 Field was welcomed. " She was more suave than 
 Kate," Mrs. Whipple says of her in describing those 
 days. " If ever a woman suggested the very ideal of 
 the word lovely, it was Mrs. Field." The Hawthornes 
 were mostly abroad at this time, but the great- 
 hearted Elizabeth Peabody was usually to be found 
 in the Boston she loved ; Mr. Howells, as a young 
 poet and romancist, was, with his charming wife, then 
 living in friendly touch with Longfellow and Lowell 
 and the elder Henry James ; and the great Agassiz 
 was teaching and lecturing. The home of the Whip- 
 pies was the constant scene of the most refined and 
 liberal hospitality. The brilliant gifts of the husband 
 were fully equalled by the exquisite culture and per- 
 sonal charm of the wife. Mr. Whipple stands to-day 
 as the greatest literary critic of this century ; the critic 
 whose sympathy with excellence was as swift as his 
 discernment of error, whose criticism was constructive 
 and creative, and who was the friend to whom Haw- 
 thorne, Whittier, Lowell, and Longfellow constantly 
 expressed their indebtedness for that sympathetic 
 interpretation of their work which insured their 
 
246 Kate Field 
 
 recognition by the general public. Mrs. Whipple, 
 the most gracious of hostesses, has always made 
 of society a fine art. Her influence was potent for 
 the sincerity and simplicity of life. Mrs. Field 
 could offer her guests of an evening a cup of tea 
 or its simple equivalent, and the little dinners she 
 gave, to which not more than two or three guests 
 were bidden, were as delightful as they were simple 
 and refined. Adelaide Phillipps was one of the habi- 
 tues of this home, as were a group of the many 
 artists of the day, including Foxcroft Cole, William 
 Hunt, and Oliver Lay. 
 
 During Kate's lecturing tours in the West it chanced 
 that Mr. Stedman, while travelling, was stopping over 
 the night in a town, where, seeing the town hall 
 lighted up, he rather aimlessly drifted into it. He 
 found the hall crowded with an audience who had 
 gathered to hear a lecture. The lecturer proved to 
 be Kate Field. The incident was embodied by the 
 poet in his "Hypatia": — 
 
 'T is fifteen hundred years, you say, 
 
 Since that fair teacher died 
 In learned Alexandria 
 
 By the stone altar's side. 
 The wild monks slew her, as she lay 
 
 At the feet of the Crucified. 
 
 Yet in a prairie-town one night, 
 
 I found her lecture-hall, 
 Where bench and dais stood aright. 
 
 And statues graced the wall, 
 And pendent brazen lamps the light 
 
 Of classic days let fall. 
 
 No civic crown the sibyl wore. 
 Nor academic tire, 
 
Lecturing and Writing 247 
 
 But shining skirts, that trailed the floor 
 
 And made her stature higher; 
 A written scroll the lectern bore, 
 
 And flowers bloomed anigh her. 
 
 The wealth her honeyed speech had won 
 
 Adorned her in our sight ; 
 The silkworm for her sake had spun 
 
 His cincture, day and night ; 
 With broider-work and Honiton 
 
 Her open sleeves were bright. 
 
 But still Hypatia's self I knew, 
 
 And saw, with dreamy wonder, 
 The form of her whom Cyril slew 
 
 (See Kingsley's novel yonder) 
 Some fifteen centuries since, 't is true. 
 
 And half a world asunder. 
 
 Her hair was coifed Athenian-wise, 
 With one loose tress down-flowing ; 
 
 Apollo's rapture lit her eyes. 
 His utterance bestowing, — 
 
 A silver flute's clear harmonies 
 On which a god was blowing. 
 
 The rose-tree has its perfect life 
 
 When the full rose is blown; 
 Some height of womanhood the wife 
 
 Beyond thy dream has known. 
 Set not thy head and heart at strife 
 
 To keep thee from thine own. 
 
 Hypatia ! thine essence rare 
 
 The rarer joy should merit ; 
 Possess thee of that common share 
 
 Which lesser souls inherit. 
 All gods to thee their garlands bear, — 
 
 Take one from love and wear it ! 
 
 This poem appears in a volume of Mr. Stedman's, 
 but few readers know the origin of his " Hypatia." 
 
248 Kate Field 
 
 It reveals how Kate's personality always suggested 
 the classic and the nobler trend of life. 
 
 Mrs. Field's health was evidently failing: in the 
 spring of 1871, Kate decided to take her mother 
 abroad, feeling that an ocean voyage would be for 
 her the best restorative ; and it was to this end that 
 Miss Field had been working in this almost super- 
 human way, on the lecture platform, and in her liter- 
 ary work. Her papers on Ristori and on Fechter, 
 which appeared in the " Atlantic Monthly," hacj 
 added to her literary reputation, and she had served 
 "The Tribune" in New York as the special critic of 
 Fechter, as she formerly had of the great Italian 
 tragedienne, Madame Ristori. Her literary contribu- 
 tions to a great number of periodicals had been in- 
 cessant, and she herself seemed in need of change, 
 although in solicitude for her mother's health she 
 forgot her own. It was on May 17, 1871, that Mrs. 
 and Miss Field sailed from New York on the steamer 
 "Russia," for England. The voyage opened pleas- 
 antly, notwithstanding Kate's momentary depression. 
 Madame Rudersdorf, the talented artiste, was among 
 the passengers, and to her Miss Field read aloud 
 from the poems of John Hay, which were then just 
 appearing ; and she read also, on this voyage, the 
 early stories of Bret Harte, which were the sensation 
 of the hour. En voyage she wrote as follows to her 
 aunt, Mrs. Sanford : — 
 
 Steamer "Russia," May 25, 1871. 
 Dearest Aunt Corda, — I never loved you as much as 
 I do now, and if it does you any good to know that you are 
 missed perpetually, know it. You see how the ship's mo- 
 tion interferes with writing, and will forgive brevity. I will 
 write from Liverpool or London. We may remain over in 
 
Lecturing and Writing 249 
 
 Liverpool for a few days. Now we are making Queens- 
 town/ and I send these few lines to let you know that so far 
 the voyage has been an excellent one. Only one rainy day, 
 and no great motion. Passengers well enough. Madame 
 Rudersdorf and Mr. Cummings a blessing. God bless you. 
 I hope we shall hear in a few days. Mother sends love. 
 
 Your Kate. 
 
 Kate Field was made of very impressible stuff. In 
 later years she used sometimes to remark laughingly : 
 " I am neither a prophet nor the daughter of a prophet, 
 so how can I tell?" in reply to some question of 
 politics or affairs ; but she certainly had a curiously 
 prophetic cast of mind. In a heading of her hand by 
 Heron Allen many years after this period, he recorded 
 of Kate's temperament: "You always know more or 
 less beforehand what is going to happen to you, or 
 when any misfortune is to occur," and this highly 
 sensitive condition always characterized her. In the 
 light of later psychic science it is not phenomenal 
 that she thus received swift and direct impressions of 
 the future. Her nervous and mental life was intense, 
 and was lived more on the spiritual plane of causes 
 than on the physical plane of effects. 
 
 And so, when she saw the gray shores of New York 
 fade away through mists of tears, as she wrote at 
 the time, her inner self undoubtedly perceived dimly 
 the cloud of sorrow into which she was unconsciously 
 entering ; the loss that for the time was to leave her 
 so desolate, and yet, in the guise of this sorrow and 
 loss, a new door of life was to open before her and 
 she was to be led forward in undreamed of ways. 
 Even in her deepest grief she was not to prove too 
 weak to master " the flowing conditions of life." Now 
 
250 Kate Field 
 
 another crisis in life was before her. She was to 
 learn to 
 
 " Scorn trifles and embrace a better aim 
 Than wine or sleep or praise. 
 
 The soul 
 Shall have society of its own rank." 
 
 By what mystic mooring fared forth the "Russia"? 
 Who knew when the Angel of Death drew near to 
 summon gentle Mrs. Field away to that fair country 
 we shall all one day know? Who shall say that the 
 husband whose withdrawal from earth she had borne 
 so bravely for fifteen years was not now with her, the 
 first to welcome her to the unseen realm? 
 
 " At last to be identified, 
 At last, the lamps upon thy side, 
 
 The rest of life to see. 
 Past midnight, past the morning star. 
 Past sunrise. Ah, what leagues there are 
 Between our feet and day." 
 
 Mrs. Field's illness was not thought of as serious 
 until the very last. Three days before reaching 
 Liverpool she had gone to the life beyond. Her 
 daughter's first letter recording this event is so re- 
 markable in its power of self-control that no com- 
 plete idea of her character could be given without 
 presenting this narration in part : — 
 
 Liverpool, May 28, 1871. 
 Darling Aunt, — For my sake, dear, be calm. Accept 
 the inevitable. We did it all for the best. I acted on the 
 advice of physicians. You have of course received the 
 telegram. I sent it to Mr. Long last night, because I did 
 not wish you to be shocked suddenly. . . . 
 
Lecturing and Writing 251 
 
 Giving the full details of her mother's illness, Kate 
 continues : — 
 
 At Queenstown I telegraphed to Mr. Hennessy to meet 
 me at Liverpool. I saw the beginning of the end. The 
 doctor stood by, and Madame Rudersdorf, who had been 
 kind from the first, came to me. From eight to quarter past 
 ten. May 26th (Friday night), I watched her as she gradually 
 faded away. There was no suffering to her. ... At Liv- 
 erpool dear, gentle Mr. Hennessy joined me, and is with 
 me now. Do not imagine that I am without friends. The 
 doctor has been as kind as a man could be. Many of the 
 passengers volunteered their services, but nothing was to 
 be done that they could do. Miss Williams and friends 
 in her house called immediately, and the Barney Williamses 
 and Florences, who arrived in the previous steamer, came 
 to-day to offer their aid and express their sorrow. I am 
 well provided with friends and (as you know) money. 
 
 May 29, 5 p. M. 
 
 The embalming will be completed to-morrow, and then 
 I shall visit the darling. A cast of the face has been taken 
 to-day, that I may have material for a marble bust. The 
 face was so sweet, the features so delicate in repose, that I 
 determined to have them preserved in marble as well as in 
 my iriemory. All arrangements have been completed to 
 have her body sent on the Cunard steamer " Siberia," leav- 
 ing here next Thursday. Do not let the funeral take place 
 until you receive another letter from me. If the face is 
 fair, I shall want you to see the darling once more, and 
 will leave the curls on the forehead, which you will have cut 
 off before the casket is closed for the last time. 
 
 Remember this. 
 
 Let the casket be removed to Mount Auburn Chapel, and 
 the services be performed there. No funeral cortege. Let 
 a few carriages be in waiting for the few friends asked who 
 
252 Kate Field 
 
 will desire to go from the Chapel to the grave. The darling 
 is to be buried beside my father, to the right, and I hope 
 all the graves will be decorated with flowers on that day, 
 especially the bed over my father's grave. And before the 
 earth is filled in, cast upon her all these loving flowers. If 
 possible, I desire Mr. Frothingham to ofificiate, and I should 
 like Mr. Weiss to offer prayer. Mr. Frothingham knows 
 more of my mother's character than any other clergyman, 
 and can do her greater justice. I have written to him, 
 and do you also on receipt of this. Failing both these 
 friends, call upon Rev. C. A. Bartol. 
 
 I have written to AVhitelaw Reid to have the notice of 
 her death pubhshed in New York, Boston, St. Louis, 
 and New Orleans. Give out no public notice of the 
 funeral. Notify such friends as I shall name and such as 
 you desire to be present, that on a certain day and hour 
 the funeral services will be performed in the Chapel at 
 Mount Auburn. I should like Mr. Anthony, Mr. Long, 
 Mr. Goddard, and Mr. Whipple to be pall-bearers. Before 
 the funeral go and look upon the face (if Mr. Long and 
 Uncle Milton think best) , have the dear curls cut, and then 
 let all be closed up. I do not wish those who did not love 
 my mother to see her when she is so sacred. Telegraph 
 me the day of the funeral, that I may be there in spirit. I 
 do not return because I cannot. The strain upon me 
 crossing that wide ocean alone so soon after the blow 
 would be more than I could bear. To-morrow, p.m., 
 after completing all arrangements, I expect to leave for 
 London, and the Hennessys will take good care of me. 
 Do not worry about me, darling ; I am trying to be re- 
 signed. I feel that dearest mother gains a dear husband 
 and son in leaving me, and in putting aside a tired, worn- 
 out body will be so much happier than when here. Her 
 death would have been impossible had she not been on the 
 verge of eternity before sailing. There was no strength to 
 
Lecturing and Writing 253 
 
 bear up against the slightest shock, and perhaps God has 
 been kind in taking her suddenly rather than to have her 
 linger in suffering for some years more. Dear, the separa- 
 tion is only temporary. Even now I feel her influence, and 
 giving myself up to it, she tells me that it is for the best. 
 Could I have foreseen all, no power on earth could have 
 induced me to set sail. I acted up to my light ; and God, 
 I hope, will not blame me for doing what every one thought 
 so excellent for her. Would we have the sweet darling 
 back to suffer? Even now, with my heart so very, very 
 heavy, I say " no." She will be with us, and her sweet ex- 
 ample will help us to grow better and more worthy of her 
 future companionship. Be brave, and grow strong, dear, 
 that I may look to you to supply the void in this life. You 
 know how mother would implore you not to grieve. If you 
 love her, heed her prayer. Give my love to Uncle Milton, 
 say that all bills are paid, everything is settled in a thor- 
 oughly business manner. There will be debts incurred on 
 the other side, which for the present I must leave to 
 him. . . . The darling's wedding ring I wear upon my little 
 finger. Go to Harves and secure the three negatives of the 
 photographs he has taken of mother. The last is the best 
 ever taken. I have one with me. I think I have said all 
 that I can to-day. I will write again, for Thursday's mail, 
 as soon as I arrive in London. I will write to New Orleans 
 also. God bless you, dear, take good care of yourself, and 
 believe me, 
 
 Ever your loving 
 
 Kate Field. 
 
 Alone in all this grief and desolation, Kate entered 
 England, yet still sustained by an unfaltering trust 
 and by earnest purposes. 
 
LONDON LIFE 
 
 ' And for success I ask no more than this : 
 To bear unflinching witness to the truth." 
 
 " And what gift bring I to this untried world ? " 
 
 ' Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, 
 Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron, 
 Can be retentive to the strength of spirit." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 I pray you, let us satisfy our eyes 
 
 With the memorials and the things of fame 
 
 That do renown this city. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 London, that great sea, whose ebb and flow 
 At once is deep and loud. . . . 
 But in its depths what treasures I 
 
 Shelley. 
 
 Europe revisited. Among London Celebrities. In Spain 
 WITH Castelar. Music and Drama. Professor Bell and 
 THE Telephone. The Shakespeare Memorial. 
 
 WHATEVER degree of success Miss Field 
 achieved in tiie sense of fulfilment of definite 
 purposes was largely due to her power of adaptation 
 to the environment of the moment. She was rather 
 swift to discern the line where the attainable became 
 the unattainable, and she was not apt to waste her 
 forces to any great extent in fighting windmills. 
 True as steel to a moral conviction, she had, withal, a 
 very liberal endowment of common sense, which is a 
 gift less freely bestowed on man than is often believed. 
 When Guizot termed common sense the genius of 
 humanity, he felicitously phrased the results of a 
 very fine balance of power and purpose. 
 
 For the moment, however, on arriving alone in Lon- 
 don, Kate was desolate almost to the verge of despair ; 
 and under date of June 8, 1871, in Aubrey House, 
 Netting Hill, she thus writes in her journal : — 
 
 17 
 
258 Kate Field 
 
 " God help me, for I do not now seem able to help my- 
 self. My own darling mother gone, and I alone in this 
 great, heartless city of London among strangers. It all 
 seems a terrible dream which I can in no way realize. It 
 seems as if I had left mother in America, and should rejoin 
 her on my return, — if I live to return. The sooner it is 
 all over, the better. And how the predictions of that clair- 
 voyante have been fulfilled. . . . Just before we started, dear 
 mother consulted a clairvoyante, who told her she was going 
 to England and approved of it. I, too, went and was told 
 the same thing. Determined to leave no stone unturned, I 
 went to another clairvoyante, reputed to be quite wonderful. 
 I in no way pin my faith to this kind of people, but I be- 
 lieve in the possibility of second sight, and never turn my 
 back upon light, if it seem to be light. The woman soon 
 went into a trance, and gave evidence of much suffering. 
 She seemed to go through the gaspings of death, and finally 
 said : ' She has come. It is she,' pointing as she spoke to 
 a ring on my right hand made of Aunt Sarah's hair. I rec- 
 ognized the manner of her death in the gasping of the 
 medium, who then said she saw a large grave near me, — 
 that of a chief who was near to me. She said that I was 
 enveloped in black ; that she should say I was about to die 
 were it not for light beyond ; that there was work for me to 
 do ; that I had endurance ; that I was going away and away 
 off across water ; that I should wade through black, but it 
 would be all right in the end. The woman kept me over 
 an hour, when I was entitled to but one half of that time, 
 and begged me to keep my own counsel. When she 
 awakened she assured me that she had never been so fear- 
 fully influenced, and asked me to please let her know if 
 anything did happen. She told me at the beginning that 
 if I would only give myself up to the influence around me I 
 should be a medium ; that there was no necessity for me to 
 seek others. 
 
London Life 259 
 
 " All this made no special impression on me. The main 
 point, crossing the water, seemed to be decided upon favor- 
 ably, both by the regular and irregular faculty. The grave 
 made no impression upon me, and the 'wading through 
 black ' became associated in my mind with struggles for 
 position. The whole interview passed out of my mind. On 
 May nth, fifteen minutes before I left Boston for North- 
 anipton, where I was to lecture that night, previous to go- 
 ing on to New York, G came and gave us a great 
 
 shock by telling us that his father had just died. Here was 
 the grave filled already. ... I had believed to be be- 
 yond the reach of physicians, but I had thought he would 
 die gradually of softening of the brain. God was good in 
 saving him and his family this long trial, and I did not 
 grieve. . . . Before we left I remarked that dear mother 
 was more easily fatigued and more forgetful of where she 
 laid things than usual, and when she packed a trunk I said 
 to myself, ' Dear, that 's the last trunk you shall ever pack. 
 Henceforth you, who have so long taken care of others, shall 
 be taken care of, if it costs me every dollar I have in the 
 world.' It was, indeed, the last trunk she packed." 
 
 On June 16 the casket containing the body of 
 Mrs. Field was placed in Mount Auburn beside her 
 husband and their little son, after a poetic and beau- 
 tiful service in the Chapel. Of this Rev. Dr. Bartol 
 wrote to Miss Field in the following letter, giving a 
 pictorial narrative of the last rites : — 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — I am asked to sketch for you what 
 I have just said over your mother's bier. I may add or 
 omit, I cannot perfectly recall, but am most happy to repeat 
 the line of thought : — 
 
 This is the hour when we know not whether to speak, 
 or be dumb and listen to the voice which is silence. Is 
 there any light or hope ? Can aught be said ? The answer 
 
26o Kate Field 
 
 seems to come, nothing but the hope itself God's spirit 
 maltes to "spring eternal in the human breast." Evidence 
 of faith? Faith is the evidence. He that makes us be- 
 heve does not play false with us in our very nature. His 
 inspiration, beyond verbal declaration, ghostly apparition, 
 or bodily resurrection, is our conviction. But is not our 
 immortality too much to credit? Mr. Channing said the 
 only argument to his mind against a future life vcas the 
 greatness of the conception ; and friends have said to me, 
 The idea of living again is too wonderful. But I have 
 had my surprise already. To live at all is the marvel, the 
 strangeness, the almost impossibility. This, lying here, the 
 sister and mother, our friend ? You call her dead ? Was it 
 spirit that once animated this form? Dead spirit ? As well 
 say dead Hfe or dead God 1 Spirit is that which does not 
 die. As we live and believe in infinite Being, and know we 
 are, ourselves, we cannot cease to be. 
 
 I am glad to see no heavy pall, but the bright flowers, 
 God's language of love to us and our language of love to 
 each other. Their cheerfulness tells yours, — you could 
 not lay them here on this lid if you did not believe and 
 hope. They are not brought in the hands of despair. But 
 the real flower is not on the coffin, but in it, the flower of 
 gentleness, the flower of sweetness, the flower of courtesy, — 
 or the broken vase from which God has taken that flower of 
 the soul's beauty to set it out elsewhere for perfect bloom. 
 It is her tenderness that impressed others, I am told. But 
 there is no true tenderness without strength. What was her 
 power and courage to pursue her worthy vocation, in times 
 when it met frowns so' dark from whatever was called reh- 
 gious in the church ? I would not be uncharitable to my 
 own profession ; but, with its opposition to the theatre, 
 however presumably sincere, is it not possible there mingled 
 unawares something of that jealousy and rivalry natural 
 between those two great arts of expression, the pulpit and 
 
London Life 261 
 
 the stage ? Be this as it may, I am free to bear witness to 
 my own receiving from the actor an instruction as well as 
 comfort beyond what preaching has already supplied. But, 
 thank God, a better day is coming — has come — of be- 
 holding religion as no insulated element, which any temple 
 can hold, but a service wide as life and deep as the God- 
 given faculties of the human mind. 
 
 In one thought more these mourners and sympathizers 
 will join, to cross the sea to her who did her pious duty so 
 thoroughly, who still pursues her steps, with the heavenly 
 approval and the satisfaction of that mother she was so 
 devoted to, — a mother that would have been proud of her 
 had she been proud of anything, and who, were she here, 
 could not, through flowing tears, look more earnestly and 
 fondly on these sacred relics — than she looks. 
 
 The Benediction I send you, may I have from you ? In 
 all love, Yours, 
 
 C. A. Bartol. 
 
 At the grave I thought how much better was the silent 
 pouring in of flowers than talking about the death of the 
 body, when the soul is joyous already, and I felt what a 
 great saying that was, " I am the resurrection and the life ; " 
 how high Jesus must have been, how greatly he must have 
 seen, to be able to say that. May I excuse so much paper, 
 with one sentence more? The half-humorous, vvholly kind 
 look from you at Mr. Sargent's house, where I last saw and 
 talked with you about the North End Mission, — in answer 
 to my almost uncivil gaze, — has stayed with me ever since, 
 and I think will not go. May not less, but more happiness 
 come into face and heart, with the grief, prays 
 
 C. A. Bartol. 
 
 It was hard to turn to the activities of life again, 
 but there are natures that must press onward with 
 ever renewed energy. 
 
262 Kate Field 
 
 " Life is ever lord of Death," 
 
 and to Kate Field, still in her youth, with her varied 
 talents and keen interests, life called with many 
 voices. Friends were kind, and she felt the con- 
 sciousness of unseen companionship sustaining and 
 encouraging her. Leaving Liverpool on May 30, 
 with her friend Mr. Hennessy, the well-known artist, 
 he took her to his home, and she began at once to 
 look forward and not backward. It was she who put 
 aside her own grief and endeavored to comfort the 
 other relatives, and to her Aunt Corda she wrote: 
 
 " Dear, let us believe it to be for the best, and let us 
 show our love for her by doing all in our power for those 
 who are left in whom she was interested. Every harsh 
 word I ever uttered comes to me as a reproach, and I ask 
 forgiveness many, many times a day. I pray God this grief 
 may chasten me." 
 
 There was, however, no occasion for self-reproach. 
 Kate had been to her mother not only a most de- 
 voted and tender daughter, but, as we have seen, in 
 her untiring work she had assumed all the cares of 
 life for both. 
 
 Miss Frances Power Cobbe was among the first to 
 call on Miss Field in London, and her kindness was 
 full of cheer. Mr. Browning was another friend 
 who brought her comfort; and with Miss Mathilde 
 Phillipps, the younger sister of Adelaide, who was then 
 in London, Kate renewed her friendship, and through 
 Miss Phillipps met Garcia. Mrs. Taylor, the wife of 
 a Member of Parliament, living in an exquisite old 
 house on Notting Hill, a part of Kensington, per- 
 suaded Miss Field to remain with her for a time. 
 " She will not allow me to seek a boarding-house," 
 
London Life 263 
 
 writes Kate, " declaring that I need rest and must 
 not worry about material existence. Her house is 
 charming, surrounded by a garden, and her friends 
 are clever and liberal." 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Moncure D. Conway were most hos- 
 pitable to her, and at a dinner at their house she 
 again met Robert Collyer. Robert Browning called 
 on her frequently. " Gradually I shall find some 
 place to fit into, I suppose," Kate writes ; " but noth- 
 ing in the world can take the place of love. ... I 
 shall not put on mourning. I don't believe in it, and 
 darling mother understands. I shall realize that 
 she is with me, free from pain, happy in the posses- 
 sion of husband and son, and not lost to me. I am 
 going to be strong. I shall mourn as little as pos- 
 sible. I shall try to be cheerful and try to do good, 
 and so please her who has only gone before." 
 
 The first letter that Kate received from her aunt 
 was written before the news of Mrs. Field's death had 
 reached her, and it began, " Dear Ones." The ex- 
 pression almost overcame Kate, after all she had 
 gone through, and she wrote : ■ — 
 
 " You can imagine how I felt. Yet the other dear one 
 was near me. She who loved me so dearly will not leave 
 me in the spirit." 
 
 Hon. Whitelaw Reid wrote to Miss Field this letter 
 
 of sympathy : — 
 
 226 East Eighteenth Street, 
 
 New York, June 3, 1871. 
 
 My dear Miss Kate, — I do not know what to write to 
 you ; and so it would doubtless be better if I did not write 
 at all. But I cannot find it in my heart to be silent when 
 such a distressing grief has so suddenly and terribly come 
 
264 Kate Field 
 
 upon you. At least let me send a single word, to show 
 that if your friend is silent it is through no lack of sym- 
 pathy or saddest pity. 
 
 I am doubly troubled about you because I know you 
 depended so much on Smalley's kind offices. If, as I have 
 thought not improbable, you decide to return at once, this 
 will make no difference ; but otherwise he could and would 
 be of great service were he on the spot. I was not quite 
 sure when he was going to take his vacation, and so said 
 nothing to you about it. His letter came very soon after 
 you sailed. 
 
 If anything I can do here can help you, pray command 
 me ; and meantime accept my sincerest sympathies, and 
 count me always 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 Whitelaw Reid. 
 
 From that beautiful spirit, Charles A. Page, came a 
 letter in which Mr. Page said : — 
 
 Your sweet, beautiful mother dying at sea ! — and you 
 with her ! Little as I knew her, you will let me say that I 
 loved her. 
 
 " I am here, — and alone,^' you say. No wonder that you 
 add that you feel in a nightmare dream. 
 
 My eyes are watery — but that won't comfort you. 
 
 I want to see you. 
 
 If you want to be quiet for a little while, there is a room 
 and two good women at my house. 
 
 Yours in sympathy, 
 
 Charles A. Page, 
 
 Oliver Lay, the artist, wrote, expressing his remem- 
 brance of Mrs. Field in the rooms on Twenty-Seventh 
 Street, where he would find the mother and daughter 
 with an open fire and a loaded desk, and all the pic- 
 
London Life 265 
 
 tures and quiet loveliness. " How beautiful she ap- 
 pears to me now ! " he continued ; " how inestimably 
 precious is every thought of her ! I can never forget 
 her dear face, and voice with such soft and tender 
 intonations, and the sweetest smile ; and how sympa- 
 thetic she was ! so noble-hearted, so ready to listen 
 to another ! and how she forgot herself in helping any 
 one who appealed to her ! " 
 
 Miss Field's cousin, Mr. George Riddle, the dis- 
 tinguished reader, wrote to Kate an exquisite letter, 
 in which, of his aunt, he said : — 
 
 " When I think of her beautiful, holy character, which 
 seemed to grow more spiritual every day till God took her, 
 I endeavor to embrace that faith which supported her sweet 
 life." 
 
 Mr. Thomas Adolphus Trollope wrote from 
 Florence : — 
 
 Florence, June lo, 1871. 
 
 My dear Kate, — I cannot refrain from . writing you a 
 word of sympathy and condolence, though I know but too 
 well how fruitless all sympathy and condolence must seem 
 to those who suffer from such sorrow as you are now suffer- 
 ing from. I know well and perfectly remember how close 
 the tie was that united you and your dear mother, and I 
 know the feeling that makes all the world seem one great 
 blank and wilderness when so large a part of oneself has 
 been torn away. Your letter to me you put perhaps by 
 mistake in a cover addressed to Isa Blagden, and I received 
 it open from her. She no doubt will have told Mrs. Jarves 
 of the unhappy tidings it contains. Jarves is in America. 
 
 We leave this place for Venice on Monday, the 19th, with 
 the intention of remaining in Venice all summer. We have 
 been recommended to give Bice a course of sea-bathing, 
 
266 Kate Field 
 
 and it seems to us that Venice is the pleasantest place at 
 which this can be done. Leghorn is detestable, but at 
 Venice there is always at least something in the city to in- 
 terest and occupy one. We propose being back here about 
 the 20thof September. Do you know that I am seeking to 
 sell my villa ? The fact is, that I cannot afford to live in it 
 without working, and I am tired of work, having in my day 
 done a fair share of hard work ; and if I could sell this prop- 
 erty we should be able to live as we wish to live without the 
 necessity of working for money. There is a lady here from 
 New Orleans who talks of buying it, but must wait before 
 she can decide, for the arrival of her husband from America. 
 Now that Paris as a residence for wealthy pleasure-seeking 
 people is a thing of the past, we are likely to have a great 
 influx of American residents here as well as others. Of 
 course we shall be glad to hear as soon as you know what 
 your immediate plans are likely to be, and of course Fanny 
 joins me in assurances that we sorrow with you in your 
 sorrow. You could not doubt it even without any such 
 assurance. My brother Anthony sailed from Liverpool for 
 Australia on the 24th of May, intending to be absent from 
 England about eighteen months. Believe me always, my 
 dear Kate, 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 T. Adolphus Trollope. 
 
 And Robert Browning wfrote : — 
 
 19 Warwick Crescent W., June 5, 187 1. 
 Dear Miss Field, — I am profoundly grieved at your 
 misfortune, — most sad misfortune. I shall not attempt to 
 speak about it. I was away when your letter came, and I 
 waited two days in order to try and get information about 
 a place of abode. Yesterday I went to Edwardes Square 
 and found you had already left. I then proceeded to your 
 present address. I know enough of Mrs. P. Taylor to feel 
 
London Life 267 
 
 at ease so far respecting you, and the kindly hands into 
 which you have fallen. It is quite useless now to mention 
 what was recommended to me as a particularly comfortable 
 boarding-house, but I can refer you to it if necessary. 
 
 I should be very glad to know the time when you are 
 most likely to be met with if I call. I will do your com- 
 mission at once to Isa B., and through her to Mr. TroUope. 
 I would gladly be of any sort of use to you, I hope you 
 need no assurance of that, but I hope to see you, and we can 
 talk together. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 R. B. 
 
 Miss Field sought instruction from Garcia, who 
 heard her sing, and then said to her: — 
 
 " My dear, I must tell you the truth. You have passion, 
 you are sympathetic, you have musical intelligence, you 
 interpret rightly in intention, your voice is sufficiently 
 powerful and the quality is good, but it is an exhausted 
 voice. You have not the muscular power to carry out your 
 intentions. If you were physically strong, you could sing 
 perfectly well, but you are tired out. You need rest, amuse- 
 ment, care. You should consult a physician, receive treat- 
 ment, and if you regain your strength I shall be most happy 
 to give you lessons." 
 
 Commenting on this, Kate said : " Yes, Garcia 
 told the truth. Now that the motive for constant 
 exertion has gone, now that I can no longer care for 
 mother, I find how tired I am." She wished to give 
 up their house in Joy Street. " I don't feel that I 
 can ever live in Boston again," she said. And in 
 reply to her aunt's expressions regarding Mrs. Field's 
 death, Kate wrote : — 
 
268 Kate Field 
 
 " Dear, don't say you are never to see mother again. If 
 I did not believe that the separation is merely temporary 
 and that the darling must be happier than were she suffer- 
 ing on earth, there would be no sunshine in life. I miss her 
 tender love and care so much. No one can have the faith 
 in me she had, but I try to believe that it is right, and that 
 the good God who took her away will make me strong to 
 endure. I can't think yet of the future. I seem a waif 
 now. . . . But I try not to grieve for darling mother. 
 What could I oiifer her in comparison with what my father 
 and brother and freedom from pain can give her? But 
 I miss her, and I am so tired and do so long to have some 
 one know what ought to be done for me and to do it. 
 Everything seems impossible, and yet the old story of sup- 
 posing I am able to bear all, goes on. Dear, you tell me to 
 spend the remainder of my life with you and to give up 
 work. You ask whether I have not had enough of public 
 life, and say that mother worried at my work. I have never 
 overworked from desire. Necessity has been my master 
 ever since childhood. I have never known freedom from 
 care. I have never seen that I could be idle until now. 
 Now I am alone and have sufficient money to authorize 
 devotion to my best interests, which at present are assuredly 
 health and relaxation. I certainly desire to be with you, 
 but it is neither right nor expedient that I renounce my 
 public career just as it is beginning. To do anything while 
 I am ill is impossible. To work reasonably should I recover 
 my tone is absolutely required of me. No one desired me 
 to do certain things more than mother, and now if I live I 
 long to realize her desires. But I long for home life, and I 
 have no wish to repeat the experiences of the past two 
 winters. Incessant travelhng is most distasteful to me. I 
 want to return to America, but as the physicians say ' no,' 
 I ought to turn Europe to the best possible account. I am 
 hedged in by the fact of loneliness. If I only had some 
 
London Life 269 
 
 one with me, I might do what now seems so difficult. The 
 doctor says I am generally better, but I feel far from well. 
 I sleep very little, and old troubles make me good for noth- 
 ing. I am told to go up the Rhine to Wiesbaden, there to 
 drink the waters which are prescribed, and then to go on to 
 Switzerland. How I am to do this alone I can't see, yet if 
 no one can be found, I must go alone. In Switzerland I 
 shall be with Lina Warren, and the Trollopes want me to 
 spend October with them, and the Vedders write urging 
 me to go to them wherever they are, and then spend the 
 winter in Rome.'" 
 
 The two months passed in London at this time in 
 the utmost retirement had still revealed to a keen 
 observer like Miss Field something of the quality of 
 social life. The world in which she found herself 
 was made up of poets, journalists, artists, with mem- 
 bers of Parliament, a few of the clergy, and here and 
 there a peer, and others of the nobility, — certainly a 
 social world of varied elements and of representa- 
 tive life. In this society she found herself at no 
 disadvantage. She had known in close intimacy at 
 home men and women who in culture and good 
 breeding were not surpassed by any in the Old 
 World, and she was herself a young woman of such 
 gifts, such distinction of presence and beautiful cul- 
 ture, that she was here, as eXstvfheve, persona grata at 
 once. Withal, she had much of her mother's win- 
 some power, and she made friends easily. Kate 
 believed in social life as one of the greatest sources 
 of development as well as of enjoyment. " Society 
 ought to be the best expression of humanity," she 
 would say; "one of these days it will be." She 
 always mingled freely in the more significant social 
 interchange. 
 
2 70 Kate Field 
 
 Faure and Lucca were in London at this time. 
 Garcia, who Iiad no voice, was so great an artist as 
 to make his art compensate for the loss ; Lucca's 
 dramatic force impressed Kate, and Faure she spoke 
 of as admirable. She saw a few people quietly and 
 heard good music ; and for the rest she drove a great 
 deal with friends, observing and studying the London 
 she was one day to know so well. Constantly was 
 Kate consoled by the conviction of her mother's 
 close presence. " I do not believe the dear one has 
 left me," she wrote. " I shall try to do the work 
 left undone by her and by father and make myself 
 useful until my last hour comes." And again speak- 
 ing of her mother she said : " Her face told the 
 story of youth and immortality. Spiritualists should 
 be cheerful," she added, " and I try to be." 
 
 The following note from Mrs. Lewes (George 
 Eliot) came very pleasantly to Kate : — 
 
 Thr Priory, Regent's Park, May 21, 1872. 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — Your letter finds me still here, but 
 in the midst of arrangements for our departure. The 
 weather, our ailments, and various other causes have 
 made us put off our flight from one week to another, but 
 now we are really fluttering our wings and making a dust 
 about us. 
 
 I wish we had seen you oftener. I was placidly looking 
 forward to your staying in England another year or more, 
 and gave way to my general languor about seeing friends in 
 these late months, which have been too full of small bodily 
 miseries for me to feel that I have much space to give to 
 pleasanter occupation. 
 
 The present of autumn leaves which Col. T. W. Higgin- 
 son has brought will be very gratefully accepted, if he will 
 kindly send them to this house, so that I may find them on 
 
London Life 271 
 
 my return in our coming autumn. Pray tliank him on my 
 behalf. 
 
 If Mrs. Mark Pattison is still in town, and if you are see- 
 ing her, will you say that I expected her to come the Sun- 
 day before last? Since it has been agreed that if we left 
 before the Sunday she was to have a card telling her the 
 fact. I wish you had been here on that Sunday. There 
 was some pleasant singing of men's voices. 
 
 Mr. Lewes adds his hearty wishes to mine that your future 
 may be a bright one. We trust that your visit to England 
 has been at least a good seedtime in your experience, and 
 you are young enough to make each sowing all-important. 
 
 Good-by. Believe me always, whether you come back 
 to us in the flesh or not, 
 
 Yours with sincere friendliness, 
 
 Marian E. Lewes. 
 
 Wishing to meet Charles Reade, Miss Field wrote 
 to him, receiving the following reply : — 
 
 Dear Madam, — I beg to acknowledge your favor, and 
 Mr. Osgood's. I do not know whether I am competent to 
 advise you, but will try. 
 
 I am always at home, from eleven till two, and shall be 
 happy to receive you any day you may feel disposed to honor 
 me with a visit. 
 
 I am much concerned to think that you should have lost 
 your mother on the voyage. It is a terrible bereavement, 
 and under the circumstances truly pitiable. I am, 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 Charles Reade. 
 
 A letter from one of the prominent story-writers of 
 America, Mrs. Rebecca Harding Davis, reached Miss 
 Field during this summer : — 
 
272 Kate Field 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — I know how many people there 
 are in the world who ask favors, and are bores in conse- 
 quence, and it is with a good deal of reluctance I add my- 
 self to the number. But I really wish some information, 
 and can only think of you as the most capable person of 
 giving it. I am sure you will be willing. 
 
 To plunge in ... at once, I want to write for an Eng- 
 lish magazine — one of the best class, of course. How 
 shall I go about it ? I do not find the editors of our maga- 
 zines disposed to help me in the matter. What magazine 
 or what editor would be most likely to consider manuscripts 
 sent ? Secondly, I am going to begin a novel (running 
 about six months) in July in " Lippincott's Magazine." 
 Do you think it likely I could arrange to have it published 
 simultaneously there, as Black's, Macdonald's, etc., are 
 here? And, thirdly, how do the rates of compensation 
 there compare with our own? You see, I am absolutely 
 ignorant of the whole matter, and I know that in all prob- 
 ability you have the carte de pays of the literary world in 
 your hand, and can advise me what to do. 
 
 I have been heartily glad to hear of your great success in 
 England. Don't come home just now if you are happy 
 there. You can have no idea of the stagnation of all busi- 
 ness and life here. The country is like a man whom some- 
 body is holding by the throat. 
 
 Once more, — don't think of me as a nuisance. I have 
 a strong dislike to myself while writing this letter, for I 
 know that I am one. 
 
 Very cordially yours, 
 
 Rebecca Harding Davis. 
 
 Kate was, however, beset with anxieties for the 
 future. She had on her hands the lease of their 
 house in Boston — at $1000 per annum — for almost 
 another year. With her characteristic executiveness 
 
London Life 273 
 
 she set to work to find some one to take the lease, 
 to store for her certain designated articles of furniture, 
 to have the remainder sold, and to send all her mother's 
 wardrobe to a relative at a distance. To a faithful 
 servant she designated certain gifts to be made out 
 of the household stores, and all these practical details 
 — so difficult to arrange at a distance — were attended 
 to by Miss Field. Out of her three years' incessant 
 lecturing and writing she had repaid to her uncle 
 several hundred dollars that he had spent for her pre- 
 viously; she had supported herself and her mother, 
 had been very generous to certain relatives, and had 
 saved $2000. This indicates that she had very good 
 financial abilities. On leaving for Europe her uncle, 
 Mr. Sanford, insisted upon giving her a letter of credit 
 for $2000 more, which she accepted gratefully as a 
 safeguard, but with the hope not to draw upon it. 
 So it was that she faced the future, and felt the two- 
 fold pressure both of earning a livelihood and also of 
 rendering whatever gifts she possessed of as much 
 value as possible to the world. She was intensely 
 ambitious, but it was always a lofty and a noble ambi- 
 tion. Although her finances were uncertain, she 
 loaned thirty pounds at this time to a friend in need, 
 whose prospects offered little assurance that it would 
 ever be repaid. Miss Field carried with her to London 
 letters to many persons of distinction, among whom 
 was Lord Houghton, and a note from him runs : — 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — I am very sorry to have missed 
 you, and it would give Lady Houghton and myself much 
 pleasure if you would dine with us next Saturday at eight 
 o'clock. I am, 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Houghton. 
 18 
 
274 Kate Field 
 
 Mr. Browning was then in London, and called often 
 to see her, renewing their friendship of a decade 
 before, and with George Eliot and Mr. Lewes the 
 acquaintance begun in Florence was continued. For 
 the sake of the future, Miss Field desired to test 
 herself in London by giving a lecture before an in- 
 vited audience, and on July 23, in the Haymarket 
 Theatre, she gave her lecture on Dickens before a 
 select gathering, which included Mrs. Fanny Kemble, 
 Miss Frances Power Cobbe, and other people of 
 note, whose verdict was that the effort was a perfect 
 success. 
 
 Miss Cobbe wrote to Miss Field the next day, 
 saying : — 
 
 " Your lecture is brilliant and clever. A great many points 
 of it ought to be quoted as epigrams. I think you have 
 great literary powers which would not fail to be successful 
 in pure literature. I think also you have dramatic powers." 
 
 A literary friend whom Miss Cobbe had invited 
 wrote to her regarding Miss Field, saying : — 
 
 " I cannot allow the great enjoyment of yesterday to pass 
 away without thanking you most warmly for the pleasure of 
 hearing and seeing Miss Field. It is a very long time since 
 I enjoyed anything so much. Although I heard Mr. Dick- 
 ens read quite near the last time, the impression was far 
 less pleasing of himself there than that of yesterday, which, 
 speaking of him, reminds one of his whole hfe so well. 
 I only hope the critics and privileged friends of such a 
 lady were able to give her encouragements to proceed 
 with the idea of favoring a larger audience." 
 
 Having made this experimental success, Kate 
 dropped the matter for the time, and thought only of 
 
London Life 275 
 
 regaining her health. With her father's effervescent 
 energy, she had also inherited his physical delicacy, 
 and the terrible strain of the past three years, culmi- 
 nating with the nervous shock of her mother's death, 
 left her in extreme exhaustion. Recommended to the 
 waters of Baden-Baden, she left London for the Con- 
 tinent the last of July, stopping at Brussels, where 
 she met Adelaide Phillipps, and they tarried one night 
 in Cologne to see the Cathedral. At Ems she joined 
 American friends, and one of the first letters she re- 
 ceived was from a London manager, who assured her 
 she had " both fame and fortune " in her gifts as a 
 lecturer. While Miss Field could endure hardship, 
 if inevitable, with great fortitude, her tastes were 
 always for elegance and luxury. In Ems she occu- 
 pied at the hotel the grand apartments that the Kaiser 
 always occupied, and she met some people of emi- 
 nence among the Germans. She was perfectly con- 
 versant with French and Italian, but not with German, 
 of which she never acquired more than a superficial 
 knowledge. In the early September she left Ems for 
 Geneva, stopping en route at Heidelberg, Baden- 
 Baden, Strasburg, and Lucerne, where she was joined 
 by her old friend Lina Warren ; and the man to whom 
 she had written that unique letter dated May 31, 
 1868, appeared and begged to escort them. Miss 
 Warren's sister and maid were included in the group. 
 The gentleman in question was again deeply devoted 
 to Miss Field, but while she found him chivalrous, 
 delicate in artistic feeling, and most interesting, 
 she felt no revival of a warmer inclination. But 
 to transform a lover into a friend was one of Kate 
 Field's possibilities. She was so frank, so unaffected, 
 she had so much of the comrade spirit, that these 
 
2 76 Kate Field 
 
 rather unusual relations were possible. While no 
 woman was more capable of passionate and deathless 
 love, she had yet an instinctive distrust of marriage. 
 In one of her letters to her aunt she says : — 
 
 " Dear, you say your only ambition for me is to see me 
 well married. Do you think that so easy ? I 've had sev- 
 eral escapes from matrimony, for which I thank God. A 
 life of ambition is a terrible grind, you say. And how 
 about most marriages ? Are not they terrible grinds ? Do 
 you realize what would happen if I married and made a 
 mistake? I do. I believe in love. I don't beheve in 
 being tied to a man whom I cease to love. Therefore 
 the less said to me about marriage the better. If I marry, 
 there 's no knowing the misery in store for me, so don't 
 think that the panacea. My observation makes me afraid 
 of Ufelong experiments." 
 
 And again in one letter she says : — 
 
 " You seem to think that ambition is the guiding star of 
 my existence, and that I am sacrificing everything to it. 
 Dear, it seems useless to argue the matter, yet you never 
 were more mistaken in your life. . . . With regard to the 
 acts of my life (outside of health) of course no one can 
 decide but myself If a human being possesses character 
 and conviction, he or she is the best judge of what must be 
 done. I am a person of convictions, and am as fervent in 
 them as Charlotte Corday when she became a murderer, or 
 Jeanne d'Arc when she braved everything to lead France 
 on to glory." 
 
 This intense individualism may suggest the clue to 
 the curious fact that a woman so attractive as Miss 
 Field never married. 
 
 As the little group of friends were leaving Ems, a 
 
London Life 277 
 
 letter came to Kate from Mrs. Vedder of which she 
 writes : — 
 
 " Carrie Vedder writes, urging my going to them. Evi- 
 dently they are very happy. Money has cheered them, and 
 they are going into new quarters with new furniture de- 
 signed by Vedder's self. I am very glad." 
 
 The trip to Geneva was most interesting. They 
 paused at Worms and saw the statue of Luther, — a 
 colossal bronze statue of the great Reformer, which 
 was erected in 1861, in the centre of the square called 
 Luther Platz ; at Heidelberg, visiting the old castle ; 
 at Strasburg they passed some time in the Cathedral, 
 which Kate did not find so fine as that of Cologne ; 
 and at Basle she admired the fine Holbeins in the 
 museum, which she says are worth a long pilgrimage 
 to see. Of Freiburg she says : — 
 
 "We arrived just in time for the concert on the celebrated 
 organ. They give one daily (during the travelling season) 
 at half-past eight p. m. The cathedral is dimly lighted, and 
 the effect delightful. I never heard such exquisite tone 
 before in an organ. The vox humana and pianissimo were 
 wonderful. After the concert I sought the organist, and the 
 next morning before starting for Geneva I had a private 
 concert all to myself" 
 
 In this cathedral is the tomb of Berthold of Zah- 
 ringen, who died in 1218. "He was the last of his 
 race," Kate wrote ; and added a vivid description of 
 a beautiful old altar-piece by Grien representing the 
 Ascension and Coronation of the Virgin. The ancient 
 University in Freiburg also interested her. 
 
 During the summer Miss Field was writing occa- 
 sional letters to the New York " Tribune," but with 
 
278 Kate Field 
 
 this slight exception she undertook no work. The 
 meeting with her old friend Miss Warren was a great 
 joy, and she wrote : — 
 
 " I am as much attached to her as ever. She is full of 
 American energy, which is good to encounter in Europe." 
 
 In Geneva Kate had a room looking out upon the 
 lake with an enchanting view of mountains down to 
 the water's edge. She was an enthusiastic lover of 
 nature and enjoyed the open air with the abandon of 
 a poet. While in the city of Calvin, Kate sought out 
 the traces of the eminent men who had lived there, — 
 Sismondi, Rousseau, Merle D'Aubign6, the author of 
 the "History of the Reformation," and Necker, the 
 Minister of Louis XVI. She visited Ferney, Vol- 
 taire's residence, some five miles from the city. From 
 Lausanne Miss Field went to Paris, where she was 
 domiciled at the Chatham and indulged in shopping 
 to the extent of a street costume and two evening 
 gowns, and where two or three dinners were given 
 for her. Thence to London again, which she reaches 
 on November i, going to an apartment in Bedford 
 Place that Helen Hunt, and later that Justin McCar- 
 thy had occupied, but not liking it she finds pleasant 
 quarters in Half Moon Street off Piccadilly. As 
 usual with the artistic and literary folk, the financial 
 problem haunts her, and to her uncle, Mr. Sanford, 
 she writes : — 
 
 " Five months only since I left home, and already I have 
 drawn the amount I started with, ^2006. When I next call 
 for money, it will probably be on your letter of credit. I 
 am sorry, but I 've undertaken to regain my health and in 
 doing this I am obliged to spend a great deal — for me. 
 At this rate, I shall expend the remaining ^2000 by next 
 
London Life 279 
 
 February or March ; consequently it behooves me to con- 
 sider the future. I am going to try to lecture here, and if 
 I succeed, I need give myself no concern about money. 
 But if I do not, I must sell out some of my stock. What 
 shall I sell? N. Y. C. Scrip or the Louisville and Nash- 
 ville R. R. bonds? Please answer this question. Chicago 
 may have killed stocks of all kinds, for aught I know, but as 
 I need not sell before February, everything may revive be- 
 fore then." 
 
 This fine independence in money matters was a 
 salient point in the flawless integrity of Kate Field's 
 character. She could accept a favor when needed, 
 but she was always sensitive to obligation and always 
 met it at the earliest possible moment. London 
 expenses she found very high. Her physician, Sir 
 Morell Mackenzie, charged a guinea a visit. Garcia's 
 terms for singing lessons- were the same per lesson. 
 But friends multiplied and life began in deeper earn- 
 est for her. One November night, dining at a famous 
 house, she met Miss Elizabeth Peabody of Boston, 
 who had then just gone over to care for her niece, 
 Una Hawthorne. Meeting William Black, the novel- 
 ist, he begs Miss Field to let him show her the old 
 London, and about this time he writes to her this 
 amusing note : — 
 
 " Why did you not tell me you were to sing after the 
 lecture ? You said ' a song and champagne thrown in,' and 
 so I heard the song with the greatest pleasure and thought 
 I 'd better not stay for the champagne. Won't you bring 
 the song of which I was defrauded, and sing it to me ? " 
 
 And again Mr. Black writes : — 
 
 Gracious goodness me ! the idea of going into the Park 
 on Good Friday ! We should be apprehended by the 
 
28o Kate Field 
 
 police and sentenced to seven years' transportation for life ! 
 If you wish to admire the trees and roam in sylvan solitude 
 by the banks of the Serpentine, this Barkis " is also willin','' 
 but if you want to see all sorts of Parliamentary swells a- 
 airin' of theirselves in the Row, we shall have to wait till 
 Parliament comes together next week. 
 
 In this awful dilemma I leave myself in your hands. If 
 you say the aimless wander, and that lunch to follow, well 
 and good ; if you say wait until we can see the swells a- 
 airin', good and well. Twenty-four hours' notice will suf- 
 fice, and I am 
 
 Yours to command, 
 
 William Black. 
 
 Miss Field always believed in the gospel of good 
 gowns, and she writes that on one of her early consul- 
 tations with Sir Morell Mackenzie he exclaimed to 
 her : — 
 
 " ' What a pretty hat you have on ! I 've tried to describe 
 it to my wife. It 's the prettiest hat I 've seen this season.' 
 Of course this led to my saying that I 'd be happy to show 
 it to Mrs. Mackenzie. He rushed upstairs, dragged her 
 down, and it ended in the wife's begging me to call on her 
 reception day. Here strangers call first." 
 
 "Wasn't it funny?" she adds. In her letter to 
 her aunt she expresses herself freely regarding Bos- 
 ton friends, — James R. Osgood, whose royal nature 
 was the counterpart of her own in generous good- 
 ness ; and of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple she 
 said : — 
 
 " The Whipples, — they are the sincerest of people, and 
 if they are cordial you may be sure they mean it." 
 
 Again she writes : — 
 
London Life 281 
 
 " My friend Sir Charles Dilke has come out publicly as 
 a republican. All the papers are howling, and some of his 
 friends have cut him, but he has done a brave thing, and I 
 honor him for it. He has merely anticipated events, and 
 now becomes a leader. English monarchy is doomed within 
 the next twenty years. Politics here are becoming interest- 
 ing in consequence." 
 
 Miss Field grew to like Half Moon Street. It is 
 in Mayfair, the parks are near, and she had a drawing- 
 room and bedroom ; and when she had a piano sent 
 in and had arranged her household gods, she found 
 herself almost happy again. The intimations from 
 the Unseen continue to come to her, and consulting 
 a medium she records a communication as written 
 signed " Little Mother," — her own pet name always 
 for her mother. The message ran : — 
 
 " I am always with you. I shall make every efifort to 
 impress you, so that we can communicate together alone. 
 I know, my baby, that you suffer, but I try to impress you 
 with our complete happiness. I can do more for you here, 
 darling. You have work to do, and we will help you 
 always." 
 
 "It was all so real," says Kate, " that the tears came to my 
 eyes. Oh, if I could only see into the other world, what a 
 comfort it would be." 
 
 The complete story of Miss Field's life could not 
 be told without including her experimental interest 
 in the relations between the Seen and the Unseen 
 worlds. It was a matter which she never discussed 
 save in special intimacy and sympathy, but the quest, 
 the consideration, and the practical experimenting 
 whenever possible, was always a part of her inner life. 
 As the Christmas of this year drew on, her aunt and 
 
282 Kate Field 
 
 uncle wrote asking her to choose herself a gift and 
 send the bill to them. She replied declining, and 
 said : — 
 
 " You and uncle do enough for me all the year around. 
 
 If you will transfer my present to you will do a 
 
 charitable as well as kindly act." 
 
 With all her indomitable courage, Kate always had 
 gravest anxieties when making a new venture ; and 
 her entire life was a series of new ventures. Fairly 
 settled in her rooms, she begins writing leading edi- 
 torials for the New York " Tribune " and making 
 preparations for her first professional lecture in Lon- 
 don. "If you knew how I feared results, you would 
 pity me," she writes to her aunt. Yet was this only a 
 momentary giving way in the atmosphere of high and 
 heroic thought. Never lacking in sentiment, there 
 was never a trace of the merely sentimental in Kate 
 Field; and it was indeed in this December of 1871 
 that she struck the keynote of all her after life, — that 
 breathless quarter of a century which still awaited her 
 on earth, — in her insight and analysis of the political 
 status of the day in England. While her literary work 
 included criticism, sketches that verged on romance, 
 narrative, and comment on almost every topic ; and 
 the dramatic comedietta, in which she was particu- 
 larly happy, — it was yet the political significance in 
 progress that became her leading interest through 
 after years. 
 
 Republicanism in England was in its dawn in 1871. 
 To Miss Field it appealed as a great cause ; and she 
 wittily says that although we are assured that truth 
 is mighty and will prevail, there is no commodity 
 which requires such Hberal advertising to bring it into 
 
London Life 283 
 
 circulation. The price paid for truth, she said, has 
 been blood, and she instanced that when John Brown 
 went to the scaffold, exclaiming, " I am persuaded 
 that I am worth inconceivably more to hang than for 
 any other purpose," he foretold the knell of slavery. 
 It seems that at a meeting addressed by Sir Charles 
 Dilke, where he argued in favor of a republic or of 
 true parliamentary representation, there was great 
 excitement, and one William Schofield, who espoused 
 the speaker's side, was killed. The event gave Miss 
 Field a text which she did not fail to elaborate in her 
 spirited way. Again she goes to the Royal Chapel 
 to hear Charles Kingsley, and writes of it one of her 
 inimitable press letters, under the caption of, " The 
 Divine Right of Kings — and Kingsley." The open- 
 ing of Parliament and republicanism in Parliament 
 occupy her attention, and certain selections from this 
 very able and brilliant series of press letters are col- 
 lected in a volume entitled " Hap-Hazard." 
 
 As usual, her days were filled with interests that 
 kept her in a state of nervous tension. One week full 
 of incident she thus recounts : — 
 
 " On Sunday I dined with the Chippendales. On Mon- 
 day I went to the House of Commons, met several mem- 
 bers, remained there until 6 p. m., then went to the Dilkes, 
 where I dined, after which I accompanied them to the 
 great republican meeting, where Dilke and Sir Henry Hoare 
 addressed their constituents. It was very fine and very ex- 
 citing. Then at eleven Sir Henry drove me back to the 
 House, where I heard Gladstone and saw a division. The 
 whole thing I have written out in four columns for ' The 
 Tribune.' On Thursday I dined with the Peabodys (bank- 
 ers) . On Friday I heard Henry Leslie, the composer, de- 
 liver a lecture on music before the Royal Institution, but it 
 
284 Kate Field 
 
 was very bad. On Saturday I met Sir Henry Holland and 
 others at the Schencks. And to morrow I go to the great 
 show at St. Paul's. I dined this week with Mrs. Inwood 
 Jones, — Lady Morgan's niece, — where I met several clever 
 people, among them a brother of Lord Clarendon's and 
 again at Sir Charles Dilke's. On Saturday evening I was 
 invited to George Eliot's ; but as I had previously promised 
 to go to General Schenck's reception, — he has one every 
 week, — I was obliged to decline, much to my regret. 
 General Schenck is very polite to me, and is a clever man 
 of the Western type. He is a good American." 
 
 Again comes an experimental test in psychic re- 
 search. She writes : — 
 
 "The other evening I attended a spiritual stance at a 
 private house. Kate Fox was the medium. We saw 
 strange lights, but I was the only person who received com- 
 munications. ' Dear child, I live and am happy.' I asked 
 no question. This came. Then I inquired whether I 
 should obey the request made in the letter received that 
 day (Uncle Milt's letter). 'No,' was the vigorous reply. 
 Of course I do not act upon such things. I only relate 
 what happened." 
 
 In the early spring Kate's uncle urged her return 
 to America, and she explains more fully than before 
 the state of her health. She wrote : — 
 
 " The fact is, that I have been overworked all my life, 
 and that I realized my condition last spring, but as I am not 
 in the habit of talking about my ailments, and as my own 
 dear mother occupied my thoughts, I have never until now 
 done anything to more than stave off illness. My dear 
 mother's death left me without nerve. All that I could do 
 for myself last summer I did do. I am better, but I am 
 far from well. Both physicians say that in justice to my- 
 
London Life 285 
 
 self I ought to try Ems again. Am I selfish in what I write ? 
 Do you think me unreasonable? I hope you will see 
 things as I do, and believe that 1 love you, although I 
 desire to remain in Europe a few months longer." 
 
 So averse was Miss Field to any recognition of ill 
 health, so full of spiritual energy and indomitable 
 will, that not even her nearest friends ever realized 
 how inadequate was her strength to her ceaseless 
 demands upon it. 
 
 On May 6 of 1872, Miss Field gave her lecture on 
 Dickens again in Willis's rooms, before an audience 
 including General Schenck (then the American Am- 
 bassador), Mrs. Kean, Garcia, Sidney Colvin, the dis- 
 tinguished art critic, and many others of note. The 
 lecture was preceded by an informal reception, in 
 which Miss Field was assisted in receiving by Mrs. 
 Mark Pattison (now Lady Dilke), who was at that 
 time the wife of the rector of Lincoln College, Ox- 
 ford, and who was always one of the more intimate 
 friends of Miss Field. Mrs. Pattison was also a near 
 friend of George Eliot's, and is supposed to be the 
 original of the character of Dorothea in " Middle- 
 march." And the readers of that strange book, the 
 " Memoirs " of Mark Pattison, which appeared in 
 1885 from the " Macmillans," will hardly need to go 
 farther to find the original of George Eliot's wonder- 
 ful portraiture of Mr. Casaubon. 
 
 The London critics were enthusiastic over Miss 
 Field's success on this occasion. Mr. Sidney Colvin 
 surprised Kate by saying there had been no such 
 voice as hers on the English stage for many a year. 
 Mrs. Kean was charmed, and she said that Miss Field 
 could easily fill any hall. If genius is only the art of 
 
286 Kate Field 
 
 taking great pains, the audiences who have enthusi- 
 astically recognized Kate Field's exquisite art in 
 speaking before the crowded houses of her later 
 years, will trace in these beginnings the unwearied 
 efforts she made to render herself worthy of public 
 approval. 
 
 Before leaving England for Ems again, she looked 
 about her with her customary thoroughness of detail. 
 " On Saturday," she writes, " I visited Oxford as the 
 guest of the rector of Lincoln College. I was in- 
 vited to dine at Professor Jowett's, and there met the 
 Dowager Lady Stanley." Miss Field was very much 
 feasted and feted on this visit, and soon after she 
 made another quite different little tour, — to meet not 
 the English aristocracy, as at Oxford, but the laboring 
 class. She writes : — 
 
 " I went to Leamington this week in order to see Arch, 
 the agricultural laborer, who has been the cause of raising 
 the laborers' wages from one end of England to the other. 
 He is an earnest, honest man. He got up a meeting on 
 purpose for me, wanted me to speak, but I was too great a 
 coward. Came to see me, and brought me a lovely bou- 
 quet, a bit of which I enclose. During this visit I went to 
 Coventry, Kenilworth, and Warwick Castle. I made 
 friends with the editor of Leamington ' Chronicle,' and 
 left highly satisfied with my expedition. This week is to 
 be devoted to lunatic asylums, agricultural congresses, and 
 sight-seeing generally. People want me to visit them in 
 the country, but I see no time. Engagements in London 
 at this season of the year are made six weeks in advance, 
 and I 've every evening filled up for a fortnight.'' 
 
 Just before her departure Miss Field was invited 
 by Sir Morell Mackenzie to a dinner of the Hospital 
 
London Life 287 
 
 for Throat Diseases, and requested to return thanks 
 for the ladies. Miss Field's speech came last, and it 
 proved the sensation of the evening. It was received 
 with tremendous applause, and Lord Clarendon and 
 others pronounced it the best after-dinner speech 
 they had ever heard. In her later life Miss Field 
 became rather noted for her feUcitous post-prandial 
 eloquence. 
 
 Miss Field opened this speech as follows : — 
 
 " Several days ago an eminent physician tied a cord 
 round my neck, put a laryngoscope into my mouth, applied 
 a galvanic battery to my throat, fastened a glittering eye on 
 me, and then, lifting up his voice, said : — 
 
 " ' I should like you to speak at our biennial dinner for 
 the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat. Will you? ' 
 
 "Reduced to such a helpless condition, how could I 
 refuse? This eminent physician combines Scotch perti- 
 nacity and Yankee energy with French tact. He has found 
 the lost art of making people do precisely as he wishes ; 
 and I honestly believe he has no friend who is not convinced 
 that the salvation of the British Empire depends upon the 
 financial prosperity of the Hospital for Diseases of the 
 Throat. I do, for one ; and I shall tremble for Young 
 Turkey, and the Balance of Power generally, if the subscrip- 
 tions at this dinner do not cover the expenses of the new 
 hospital building. Far be it from me to betray the identity 
 of this persuasive gentleman. I will merely say that he sits 
 with graceful but unconscious dignity at a neighboring 
 table, and spells his name with an M. 
 
 " On the removal of the cord, laryngoscope, battery, and 
 glittering eye, I asked, — 
 
 "'What subject?' 
 
 "'The Ladies.'" 
 
 It is little wonder that they laughed. 
 
288 Kate Field 
 
 Mr. Stedman's letters, always full of sympathy 
 with her high aspirations, with joy in her successes, 
 with banter and fun and glancing wit, followed her 
 everywhere. Here was a bit of rhymed nonsense 
 which he sent her on a post-card : — 
 " There is a young woman named Kate, 
 Whose vivacity none can abate ! 
 The wits of all lands 
 Obey her commands, 
 And she makes all the cabbies go straight." 
 
 At London entertainments Miss Field met Lady 
 Franklin, who sent her a note that runs : — 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — It would be so great a pleasure to 
 me to have you, if only for an hour, in my own house before 
 your departure that I have resolved upon the bold step of 
 asking you at the last moment if you could not make it 
 possible to look in upon us to-morrow evening. 
 
 We have some other friends coming to see the laurel- 
 brow'd African lion, but what of the American lioness ? I 
 have not dared except to a favored very few to mention her 
 name, and was then asked what relation she might be to Mr. 
 Cyrus Field, so natural does it seem to men to take to 
 themselves all the honors. Never mind their blundering ; 
 my reply was that it was the Miss Field who ought never to 
 be taken for anybody else, not even for the daughter of Mr. 
 Cyrus Field of telegraph and other celebrities. 
 
 I had hoped to find a vacant place at our dinner table to 
 offer you, but my party was already made up before Mr. 
 Stanley appeared on the stage, and unless somebody should 
 fail at the last moment, there is literally no space left for the 
 most anxiously desired addition. 
 
 I have ventured to send a card to Sir Charles and Lady 
 Dilke, trusting the latter might excuse my not having yet 
 been able to call on her. Believe me, 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Jane Franklin. 
 
London Life 289 
 
 Mr. Froude, the historian, apparently added to his 
 other gifts a sense of humor, as evinced in the 
 following : — 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — What possessed you to keep 
 your veil on j and what possessed Conway not to tell me 
 who I was speaking to till you had gone ? I have always 
 thought of you as the brightest of my American friends, and 
 there you were, talking to me in your old way ; and although 
 the voice and the lower part of your face (all that was 
 visible) seemed so pleasantly familiar I could n't conceive 
 whom you could be. 
 
 Knowles is the most accessible of men. You have only 
 to write directly to him. . . . 
 
 If you are so diffident that you want an introduction, you 
 can use my name, but it is not the least necessary. 
 
 Will you not come here and see me and let me introduce 
 you to my daughter ? If not, when will we be likely to find 
 you at home? 
 
 Ever yours truly, 
 
 J. A. Froude. 
 
 Mark Twain, being in London, writes : — 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — I see that it is n't your fault that you 
 do not know me, and I 'm sure it is n't mine that I do not 
 know you. Plainly, then, the party to blame is Providence, 
 and therefore damages cannot be had in this vale. But we 
 shall be glad to see and know you and likewise Lady Dilke ; 
 and since you give us the privilege of naming the time, 
 shall we say Wednesday about 5 p. m. ? I do not know that 
 we have another disengaged day or hour for some little time 
 to come, or I would of course offer a larger latitude. My 
 small family of sight-seers keep themselves pretty busy; 
 they have never been abroad before. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Samuel L. Clemens. 
 19 
 
290 Kate Field 
 
 In the opening days of June Miss Field left Lon- 
 don for Ems again via Paris, and her last three days 
 were completely filled with the good-by calls of her 
 friends. Her sincerity and frankness of nature, no 
 less than her gifts and grace, had peculiarly endeared 
 her to a very large and very varied circle. 
 
 One English lady, a peeress in her own right, wrote 
 to Miss Field on her leaving : — 
 
 " I am almost sorry that you came. Had we not known 
 you, we should not feel the loss. You have had a great suc- 
 cess here, without seeking it or without paying the "least 
 court to people of position. You have treated everybody 
 alike (this is a marvel to the English, who are sat upon by 
 caste), and we all like your independence and respect you. 
 I am sure you can go nowhere without making friends, for 
 no American ever came here who made so great an impres- 
 sion and in so short a time." 
 
 Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, calling and not finding 
 Miss Field, wrote her the following letter, which, 
 though undated, apparently belongs to this time : — 
 
 Saturday Morning, 12 o'clock. 
 Dear Kate, — My heart gave such a tvvinge when I re- 
 ceived your farewell card that I flew down here this morn- 
 ing in a coup^, hoping to take tender leave of you. And 
 you are not here. I am so sorry I do not know whether 
 you have been in town all these days. I thought not, know- 
 ing of your trip to Cambridge. Then I heard of your going 
 to the Derby, and then came your card. I have been mis- 
 erably unwell with a cold. The London climate seems to 
 promote such things. I shall be at home this p. m. from 
 4 to 6 — no company invited, but if you could call in, how 
 pleasant ! I expect to be at home all this evening, and 
 would surely stay there if you could send me word that you 
 
London Life 291 
 
 would come round {Boston). And I dare say you are 
 going to dine with some of the grandees. I go to Paris to- 
 morrow, to attend meeting " Alliance Universelle," — hum- 
 bug, I expect. Thence to Bristol, back in town to-day 
 week. Expect to hold Sunday service at Free Masons' 
 Tavern Drawing-room to-morrow week — time, evening. 
 Kate, I like you. Farewell. 
 
 Affectionately, 
 
 Julia W. Howe. 
 
 Kate was warmly greeted in Ems by the friends she 
 had made the preceding summer. To her aunt she 
 writes : — 
 
 " In Paris I saw Ristori, who was delighted (at least she 
 acted so) to see me. She has a pretty apartment and looks 
 as well as ever. Louis Blanc called, but I was out." 
 
 Miss Field's newspaper work was now attracting 
 eminent attention. A little note from that nearest 
 and most prized of her friends, Mr. Edmund Clarence 
 Stedman, enclosing a press complimentary mention 
 of her, closes with these words : — 
 
 Dear Kate Field, — If you will let me call you so, 
 to be so helped by a woman who seems to me so fair and 
 free-hearted as yourself, is enough recompense for any poet, 
 and I feel as much stirred by it as Rizzio could have been 
 when Mary Stuart said his voice had music and his lips 
 were sweet. I send you an exchange picture, which looks 
 as much like Governor Boutwell as the man 't was taken for, 
 and am 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 E. C. Stedman. 
 
 A letter of similar import from her old friend, Mr. 
 Richard Watson Gilder, in which he wrote : — 
 
292 Kate Field 
 
 " How are you getting along, My Dear K. F. ? Often and 
 often we (at our house) and your friends here talk about 
 you. We have a half-dozen pictures of you over home ; 
 and you always look so pathetic (not sentimental^ in photo- 
 graphs that I feel, on sight, like sitting down and expressing 
 a great deal of interest in your affairs. I will not say that 
 there is not the same quality in your bodily presentment ; 
 but it is accompanied by a ■ — what shall I call it ? — ' jasm,' 
 electrical sparkles. I read your ' Tribune ' letters with 
 interest, and so do a great many people. We would like 
 to have Dilke send us an article on ' Republicanism in 
 England.' " 
 
 Mr. George Ripley writes, asking her to send " a 
 luminous screed about London or the Brownings, or 
 Miss Evans (George Eliot) or the great Lucifer, or 
 any other worthy." A characteristic little letter of 
 Celia Thaxter's runs : — 
 
 Dear Kate Field, — Here is a lackadaisical picture, if 
 you want it. I cannot get a picture that is not either idiotic 
 or savage — what is the reason? for I won't confess to be- 
 ing a fiend or a simpleton quite. And I can't look up and 
 show my little eyes, for then I seem most like a hag, so it is 
 taken in this " maiden meditation fancy-free " style. Yours 
 would be quite charming if you did not look so discon- 
 tented ; it carries a protest about the mouth, against all the 
 world. But photographs lie, at least I know mine do. 
 Thank you for it — most for the love you sent us with it. 
 Take mine in return — as much as you like, pretty Kate 
 Field. . . . 
 
 Believe me ever truly your friend, 
 
 Celia Thaxter. 
 
 James Parton writes to her this genial letter : — 
 
London Life 293 
 
 New York, April, 1874. 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — I wonder if you know how wel- 
 come to readers of " The Tribune " are your initials and all 
 that goes before them. You ought to know for your own 
 comfort, for no one of the scribbling temperament can keep 
 on long without being petted and praised a little. You are 
 an admirable journalist and much besides. You select the 
 right things to tell and you infuse them with human spirit. 
 All your letters from Europe last year, — your Spanish, 
 especially, — your kind and good and wise letter this morn- 
 ing, delighted me, and I feel grateful to you for them. I 
 hope you will regularly join " The Tribune " as its writing- 
 whenever-you-feel-like-it-correspondent, at a salary that will 
 cheer and not inebriate you. 
 
 Excuse my impudence, and believe me, 
 
 Gratefully, 
 
 James Parton. 
 
 A literary man in London wrote to Miss Field : 
 
 My dear Miss Field, Dear K. F., My dear Kate, My 
 Lovely Passion Flower, — I apostrophize you thus alter- 
 nately in order that you may, like ladies in a draper's shop, 
 select the article which suits you best. Your letter of 
 September 6th has reached me, and has somewhat calmed 
 my tempestuous wrath. I began to think that, like some 
 fair siren, you had lured my footsteps to the Southampton 
 Pier and then plunged all writing (I believe you were writ- 
 ing, though you ought to have been doing the other thing) 
 beneath the Atlantic, vanished, in fact, altogether. 
 
 Another friendly word came from Mr. Richard S. 
 Spofiford, who said : — 
 
 " I don't know of any one who has been the victim of a 
 more pronounced and progressive success than yourself, or 
 who more fully illustrates the profundity of Emerson's asser- 
 tion that the only way to be successful is to succeed ! " 
 
294 Kate Field 
 
 Already Miss Field had achieved a distinctive rec- 
 ognition in the writing of dramatic dialogue, and her 
 sparl<ling comediettas were somewhat in demand in 
 both London and New York for holiday magazine 
 issues and other festive literary occasions. Mr. Sted- 
 man, whose genius for friendship rivals his gift of 
 song, wrote to her : — 
 
 " Naturally, after an evening with your letters, and reading 
 to-night your ' Tribune ' works, I have been musing with 
 regard to its author and your hint that you had half a mind 
 to write a play. Why not make the half a whole, and do 
 it? I really don't believe that you can do anything else so 
 well (unless it be to win friends at sight). The fact is that 
 your education and career have been nomadic and versatile, 
 — you have coquetted, and something more, with literature, 
 art, lecturing, criticism, etc. ; but if you love one thing 
 more than another it is, possibly, the stage, both from early 
 associations and instinct. Now I don't know any woman 
 who has your peculiar gifts and advantages as a dramatist. 
 You are a writer, to begin with, with sentiment, culture, wit, 
 sensibility. More than this, you know the stage, its effects, 
 limitations, and requirements. Lastly, you have natural 
 dramatic instinct. Write a play in prose, close, sharp, 
 epigrammatic, sparkling, but with scenes and passages of 
 real tenderness, pathos, passion. If the period is far in the 
 past, the story may be either foreign or American ; but if in 
 the present, American by all odds. You will succeed, and 
 such a work in hand will give point to your ambition, and 
 you will be happy while engaged upon it. But write it as 
 an artist ; that is, quit society for a time, throw your whole 
 heart into your work, let it absorb you to a certain extent, 
 do it for the love of it. It is too late for you to go on the 
 stage, and for you to stoop to pass through the several 
 grades of promotion — is it not ? These few words come 
 
London Life 295 
 
 wholly from my desire to see your fine temperament devel- 
 oped by an adequate task. You will succeed, if you try 
 honestly. Don't think that giving advice is the ordinary 
 habit of your friend, 
 
 E. C. Stedman. 
 
 This letter had a cumulative effect on Kate, not 
 only in the one direction suggested, but as influencing 
 her with added impulse toward the drama in its prac- 
 tical expression of stage appearances. Yet for the 
 moment this inborn desire of her life was to be held 
 in abeyance.. 
 
 Among the many sparkling comediettas which 
 were the fruits of the future years of Kate's work, — 
 the original manuscripts of which are now in the 
 Boston Public Library — are those entitled: "The 
 Blind Side," "Extremes Meet," "Two Quarrel- 
 some Cousins," " Dead to the World," " The Wrong 
 Flat," "A Moving Tale," " Caught Napping," "A 
 Morning Call," and "The Opera Box." 
 
 These are instinct with dramatic movement and 
 inimitable sparkle and humor. The original manu- 
 scripts of these comediettas, together with a large 
 mtmber of the letters written to Miss Field by some 
 of the famous people of the age, were presented to 
 the Public Library. These, accompanied by a repro- 
 duction of Vedder's portrait of Kate Field, painted in 
 Florence (the original of which is in the Boston 
 Museum of Fine Arts), were graciously accepted by 
 the President of the Board of Trustees, Frederick 
 Octavius Prince, Esq., Herbert Putnam, Librarian, 
 and the members, Messrs. Solomon Lincoln, Josiah 
 Henry Benton, Jr., H. P. Bowditch, and Rev. James 
 de Normandie, and by their courtesy form a " Kate 
 
296 Kate Field 
 
 Field Memorial Collection," a permanent honor to 
 the memory of one of America's noblest women. 
 
 Mr. William Winter, the distinguished critic and 
 poet, wrote, under date of 1898, in reply to a letter 
 from the friend who presented these papers to the 
 Library, saying: — 
 
 "Your disposition of the letters of Kate Field seems 
 the most judicious that could be made. She often wrote 
 to me, and many of her letters remain among my papers. 
 With respect to letters of mine, addressed to her, I would 
 say that I have no reason to suppose them to be worthy of 
 preservation. It would, of course, be my wish that all let- 
 ters of mine which may happen to touch upon matters of 
 private experience, and which were intended for her alone 
 (if any such there be), should be destroyed. She and I 
 were accustomed to write to each other with entire frank- 
 ness. It was never my wish to contribute to the gossip of 
 the world, or in any way to minister to the taste of the mul- 
 titude'. I am, however, very sure that the choice of the 
 letters to be saved may confidently be committed to your 
 judgment and taste." 
 
 To Kate Field herself no form of memorial could 
 be more grateful than the honor of having her name 
 enshrined in the Public Library of Boston. 
 
 The London season of 1872 was no exception to 
 the usual brilliancy, and, as usual, there were no 
 lack of Americans to enjoy the great metropolis. 
 Two little notes from Mrs. Julia Ward Howe to Kate 
 were apparently written at this time, although the 
 first is undated : — 
 
 Dear K. F., — We are here for a short stay after two 
 years of wandering, and shall be very glad to see you again, 
 if you are willing. If you will come to see us, or if we 
 
London Life 297 
 
 shall come to see you, send a cheap postal to say. I sup- 
 pose, talking of cheapness, that you have made your for- 
 tune by this time. 
 
 Yours always sincerely, 
 
 Julia Ward Howe. 
 
 The second runs : — 
 
 Monday, May 20, 1872. 
 
 Yes, dear Kate, I will come with much pleasure, for 
 much pleasure. Yours, just returned from the North, 
 very cold and old, but rather good-natured, 
 
 J. W. H. 
 
 Miss Field passed this summer of 1872 at Ems and 
 in the autumn returned to London. She met Brad- 
 laugh and interviewed him for the New York " Tri- 
 bune." At this time all London called him " Beast 
 Bradlaugh," and the tide of denunciation incited Miss 
 Field to hear and know the man and judge for herself. 
 "What's the matter with Bradlaugh?" she asked. 
 "The matter?" replied the British public: "every- 
 thing ! He 's an atheist and, what 's worse, a repub- 
 lican." Still unconvinced that the man was utt;erly 
 unworthy, Kate drove to the East End one evening to 
 hear him address an audience of working-men. " I 
 went again and again," she remarked later, " for I was 
 deeply impressed by an orator who would not have 
 had his equal in England had he not occasionally 
 dropped his Ks. In physique he resembled Henry 
 Ward Beecher and Robert Collyer. Charged with 
 magnetism, he swayed his audiences at will and was 
 often inspired with an eloquence so spontaneous as to 
 be beyond his own recollection a few moments later." 
 
 Miss Field was not averse to giving her views of 
 Bradlaugh at Mayfair dinner-parties, quite to the un- 
 
2g8 Kate Field 
 
 disguised horror of her listeners. " Sir Charles Dilke 
 was the only exception," she laughingly related after- 
 ward in speaking of this episode in her life. "While 
 Sir Charles was not altogether in sympathy with 
 Bradlaugh, he did him justice, and said of him, ' Brad- 
 laugh is the only man in England who has a fol- 
 lowing.' It was true," continued Miss Field, " his 
 ' following ' could not be found in society, but it 
 existed all the same." 
 
 Among Miss Field's papers is a letter from Brad- 
 laugh, under date of Nov. 4, 1872, that runs: — • 
 
 My dear Miss Field, • — I feared you had excommuni- 
 cated me for my baseness. Really, it is very difficult to 
 write about myself. I do not like always to boast, and yet 
 to write my life really seems like a succession of boastings. 
 I got a letter from the agents, and have written them in 
 reply, asking them again to bother you. 
 
 I have gained a great victory over the authorities, who 
 have backed down and have registered my paper. I am now 
 very busy trying to bring the numerous republican clubs 
 into one great organization, and believe that I shall succeed. 
 The first edition of the Impeachment is nearly sold out, and 
 I am occupied on another edition, which will be much 
 stronger. Please choose my subjects for me for America, 
 and I will be as gentle as it is possible for a bear like my- 
 self in all I say and write to you. The Bute of to-day is 
 a descendant, the Earldom having become a Marquisate. 
 If wise, — that is, for lectures in America, — I am well up in 
 the facts as to Ireland, and I take very strong ground for 
 the Irish against our past rule. 
 
 Thanking you for your praise, which one day I will try 
 to justify. I am. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Charles Bradlaugh. 
 
London Life 299 
 
 It was through Miss Field's influence that Brad- 
 laugh came to the United States to lecture, making 
 very successful appearances. The last time Miss 
 Field ever saw him was in 1880 in London, one night 
 that she and Mr. John McCullough, the actor, were 
 dining together. As the door-bell rang violently, 
 Kate remarked to Mr. McCullough, " Whom do you 
 suppose that is? " "I have not the remotest idea," 
 replied the popular tragedian. " Guess," tantaliz- 
 ingly continued Kate. " I am not good at guessing." 
 "Who is the most talked-of man in England?" she 
 questioned. "The Prince of Wales?" he ventured. 
 Kate's eyes sparkled with fun as she shook her head. 
 " Well, if not the Prince," said Mr. McCullough, " it 
 must be Bradlaugh." " Right," Kate replied ; and 
 just then the hero of the hour was ushered in, and he 
 exclaimed, " W^hy, it 's more difficult to get into your 
 lodgings than into the House of Commons, from 
 which, by the way, I can only be absent an hour and 
 ten minutes." 
 
 This was at the time when Bradlaugh had fought 
 his way into Parliament and three several actions had 
 been brought against him. At the end of his career, 
 however, the House of Commons expunged the reso- 
 lutions that it had passed against Bradlaugh ten years 
 before, this reversal of judgment being advocated and 
 led by Mr. Gladstone. 
 
 Whatever appealed for freedom of thought always 
 inspired the interest and the ^legiance of Kate 
 Field. 
 
 At this time Sir Charles Dilke was editing the 
 "Athenaeum," which was then, as now, a standard in 
 English literary criticism, and through her friendly 
 offices Sir Charles asked Edwin P. Whipple to send 
 
300 Kate Field 
 
 an article for the "Athenaeum," and to Kate Mr. 
 Whipple writes: — 
 
 Boston, Nov. rp, '73. 
 My dear Miss Field, — I must decline Sir Charles 
 Dilke's invitation, none the less because my eyes are 
 pleased at the renewed sight of your bold, clear, and strong 
 handwriting. We — that is, Charlotte and I, a phiral 
 unit — unite in sending our best love to "Kate." Shall we 
 see you in Boston this winter? If you come, be assured 
 that you can be welcomed by no more cordial friends than 
 live in No. 1 1 Pinckney Street. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 E. P. Whipple. 
 
 The secrets of literary art are sometimes surprised 
 by the student of literature, who even emulates the 
 zeal of Sir Joshua Reynolds when he scraped a 
 painting by Titian to discover the hidden power of 
 his coloring. To such researchers a revelation of the 
 methods of so great a critic as Mr. Stedman will be 
 of no little interest; and the completeness of the un- 
 veiling of his art in the following letter to Miss Field 
 establishes its claim to be placed on permanent 
 record. Under date of Dec. 12, 1873, Mr. Stedman 
 thus writes to Kate: — 
 
 Dear K. F., — Your letter first before any other work. 
 The manuscript I see is in no condition to print, owing to 
 former marks, so I h^ve n't scrupled to mark it still more. 
 Have numbered the stanzas for reference's sake, but would 
 not number them, if I were you, in a clear copy. 
 
 In this poem there is much of your characteristic original 
 strength and vigor. Your very lack of poetic study keeps 
 your mind clear of old or hackneyed phrases, and occasion- 
 
London Life 301 
 
 ally you hit upon some most felicitous phrase. Again, you 
 put in something so grotesque or commonplace as to be 
 out of keeping — even in a grewsome poem like this. The 
 poem, on the whole, is too good to be lost ; may be re- 
 vised and sold to Harper or Scribner, I should say." 
 
 The poem in question was evidently the following, 
 entitled, — 
 
 FORTY TO TWENTY 
 
 A DRAWING-ROOM DRAMA 
 
 Tears in your eyes ; and why ? Because you find 
 
 That he you love is mortal, after all ? 
 
 Dear silly coz, what else did you expect ? 
 
 You met the man, and though you said no word, 
 
 Your eyes were eloquent and warmly spoke 
 
 The electric language of the universe. 
 
 You thought him brilliant ; ay, he 's truly so : 
 
 Brilliant enough to know, ere many days, 
 
 What spell the magic of his genius cast 
 
 Upon a bright but untrained country girl. 
 
 Your fresh, frank ways, your eager earnestness, 
 
 Were revelations to the sated lion. 
 
 He looked on you as on a nouveaute, 
 
 A creature quite unlike the simpering dolls 
 
 Whose fans he flutters as he talks sweet lies. 
 
 You innocently touched his weakest point ; 
 
 And that, as in most men, is vanity. 
 
 'T is writ in books, 't is said by wagging tongues, 
 
 That women are the weaker vessels, coz. 
 
 Our love of approbation is so great 
 
 We 'd sell our birthright for a mess of it. 
 
 Whene'er potential " he " pours in our ears 
 
 The honey kept on tap for our poor sex, 
 
 We melt as wax before the burning sun ; 
 
 And being born thus weak, fulfiHing fate. 
 
 We 're called to task if we walk not a crack ; 
 
 Held up to scorn, make we but one misstep 
 
 And fall from earthly heaven to earthly hell. 
 
302 Kate Field 
 
 (By heaven I mean, of course, society, 
 
 And woman's hell comes when it turns its back.) 
 
 Man, coz, — the stronger vessel, being strong, — 
 
 Jumps cracks and wanders at his own sweet will 
 
 In zigzag paths where morals can't keep straight. 
 
 He 's not responsible if his poor head 
 
 Is turned by winsome glance and loving speech; 
 
 Being strong, you see, he cannot help himself ! 
 
 It makes a deal of difference in this world 
 
 Whether you 're born a man or woman, coz. 
 
 You 've been taught from your birth that it takes two 
 
 To make a bargain ; when it comes to sex, 
 
 It takes but one, and woman is that one. 
 
 So has it been since chaos settled down 
 
 Into the muddy mush that we call earth. 
 
 Man ever is an Adam, woman Eve. 
 
 He asks to taste the apple in her hand, 
 
 And when he 's eaten it and is arraigned. 
 
 Exclaims, " Behold, the woman gave it me I " 
 
 Not manly, think you, to thus shirk results ? 
 
 You call him coward for betraying Eve ? 
 
 You say such reasoning would never hold 
 
 In any book of logic ? True enough ; 
 
 But when you 've longer lived, you '11 surely learn 
 
 Though logic 's fact, fact is not logic, coz ; 
 
 And you '11 be in your grave, as well as I, 
 
 Before society revolves around 
 
 An axis of right reason. 
 
 Weeping still? 
 You fancy, coz, yours is the only heart 
 That has been trifled with ? You long for death ? 
 You think the sun will never shine again. 
 That life will taste of naught but Dead Sea fruit? 
 Now look at me. I 'm envied by the world 
 Because I 'm handsome, rich, endowed with wit, 
 And tact enough to know just what to say. 
 And when to say it. My salon is thronged 
 With genius and with beauty, coz, because 
 I 've sense enough to listen to the men. 
 Acting as whip to each one's hobby-horse, 
 And art enough to advertise the charms 
 
London Life 303 
 
 Of my own sex, whatever be their kind. 
 
 Because of this, some call me politic, 
 
 But all admit that I am popular, 
 
 And you, 'mong others, long to wear my shoes. 
 
 Why, silly coz, I 'd gladly change with you. 
 
 To lose the memory of earlier days. 
 
 At your age I loved madly, loved with all 
 
 The passion of a soul that loves but once. 
 
 I thought my love returned ; his vows at least 
 
 Were warm enough to melt a colder heart 
 
 Than nature gave to me. The man was born 
 
 Below my sphere, but genius knows no rank, 
 
 And I placed him above, beyond the herd 
 
 Of titled nobodies with addled brains. 
 
 I lived for this one man — for him alone. 
 
 We plighted troth ; my parents threatened then 
 
 To cast me off, to disinherit me ! 
 
 " Defy our will and you may beg for bread 
 
 Ere we will give heed to your misery," 
 
 Said they who brought me into this kind world. 
 
 I loved, and so was ready to lose all. 
 
 Not so the hero of my one romance : 
 
 His face grew pallid and his speech confused ; 
 
 He kissed me hastily; said he'd return 
 
 To claim me. How think you, coz, he claimed me? 
 
 He wrote a cold, brief note, in which he said 
 
 That he was far too proud a man to wed 
 
 In opposition to my family. 
 
 His grief had forced him to the Continent, 
 
 He hoped I might be happy, and then signed 
 
 Himself " Sincerely mine," etc. 
 
 None born with strong physique e'er die of love; 
 
 I did not even faint, or go to bed 
 
 Raving with fever, as girls do in books. 
 
 I sent back that man's note without remark, 
 
 Assured my parents their will should be mine, 
 
 Was taken to their arms, and soon betrothed 
 
 To the old lord whose name I 've so long borne. 
 
 He, to reward me for my sacrifice. 
 
 Died, after our most placid honeymoon, 
 
304 Kate Field 
 
 Leaving me mistress of his large estates. 
 Then passed away my parents, blessing me 
 For reaping the reward obedience 
 So filial merited. Restless, distraught, 
 I wandered to and fro for three long years, 
 Seeking to dull the pain about my heart 
 By change of scene and new acquaintances. 
 One day, 'mid Roman ruins, I came upon 
 The man I once adored. He dared to speak : 
 Begged me to take him to my heart again. 
 Now death had broken down the barriers. 
 The devil in me got the upper hand ; 
 I lashed the craven creature with my tongue. 
 And sent him cringing from me. " Nevermore 
 Let me behold your face," were my last words. 
 Full well have they been heeded. Then 1 came 
 Back to my native land, took up the game 
 Society demanded I should play, 
 And faithfully I 've played it, though alone 
 I 've held the cards, no partner aiding me. 
 Such is my story. Without love or child, — 
 The only longings of a woman's heart, — 
 I 'm pointed out as Fortune's favorite. 
 Perhaps I am ! Come, cousin, dry your tears. 
 Your wound 's skin deep. Mine penetrated far; 
 And yet I 'm not what people call a wreck. 
 You '11 have no appetite ; you '11 lie awake ; 
 You '11 sigh and sadly smile at merry jests. 
 This will endure for possibly a month, 
 During which time I promise to disclose 
 The true proportions of the demigod 
 You 've worshipped at the altar of your dreams. 
 I '11 prove to you, despite the charm of heads. 
 That in the game of life, coz, hearts are trumps. 
 Is it agreed? Then look up while I bathe 
 Your eyes in cooling spray. Now you are like 
 Your dear old self, 
 
 I 'm hungry. Let us dine. 
 
 Kate Field. 
 
London Life 305 
 
 This poem was published in "Appleton's Maga- 
 zine." While Miss Field had some degree of the poetic 
 temperament, she was not a poet ; yet now and then 
 the rhythmic impulse took possession of her and she 
 wrote some clever verse. As a child and all through 
 her early girlhood the poetic impulse manifested itself 
 and much of this versification remains among her 
 papers. 
 
 Returning to America in the autumn, the following 
 note from Mr. Reid indicates that Kate was with her 
 aunt in Newport. 
 
 New York, Sept. 21, 1872. 
 
 De.4r K. F., — I 'm so startled at the alarming prospect 
 of solitude that you set before me at Newport that I 'm com- 
 ing at once, — that is, next Saturday, — unless the Political 
 Fates should get the better of me. I 'm running away from 
 them to-day, and I hope I may venture on a longer run 
 next week. 1 '11 find my way to the house and the key 
 under the door mat, to say nothing of the dining-room and 
 the goodly array of comfort there, which you considerately 
 promise. 
 
 As for Kennedy, No. We could n't print his work now 
 if we had it. I do hope Mrs. Sanford is better. Her sad 
 face, as I saw it last, haunts me. 
 
 Always very truly, 
 
 Whitelaw Reid. 
 
 Again Mr. Reid writes : — 
 
 New York, Feb. 6, 1873. 
 
 Dear K. F., — Very many thanks for your ringing article. 
 
 Do you know that the excellent threatens me with hbel 
 
 suits ? He 'd have a good time ! I waited till this p.m. 
 
 about the Arion, because I wanted to see what I could be 
 
 sure of about going. But it won't be safe, with the awful 
 
 pressure I have, to undertake it. Suppose you do this : 
 
 take the box as proposed (sending bill to us), make up 
 
3o6 Kate Field 
 
 your party to occupy it, and let me look in when I can. I 
 did n't get to the Infant Asylum ball, you know, till one in 
 the morning, or to the Charity till two. 
 
 Will this do ? If so, I '11 arrange for having your copy 
 brought early. Here are half a dozen waiting to see me ; 
 and the desk is covered with letters marked " Immediate." 
 Hastily and very truly yours, 
 
 Whitelaw Reid. 
 
 In May of 1873, Kate again sailed for England, 
 Rev. Dr. and Mrs.Chapin and Rubinstein being among 
 her fellow-passengers. Just before sailing, the great 
 pianist was introduced to Miss Field, and he ex- 
 claimed : — 
 
 " Everybody has told me how charming you are, 
 and have congratulated me upon sailing with you." 
 
 It was in the early June that Miss Field reached 
 London, where she dined first of all with her old 
 friends, the Hennessys, and the next night at Anthony 
 Trollope's, meeting Wilkie Collins. Lunching witR 
 her friend Mrs. Taylor, the wife of a Member of Par- 
 liament, she met a niece of Carlyle. Mr. Browning 
 called at once, and one afternoon read to her two 
 books of his " Red Cotton Night-cap Country." 
 Ristori was playing, and Miss Field, seeing her in 
 Marie Stuart, pronounces her as fine as ever. Wilkie 
 Collins took her to the Olympic Theatre to see " The 
 New Magdalen," dramatized from his novel, in which 
 Ada Cavendish was playing the title r61e. " I like 
 the play," said Miss Field. " It marks an era in 
 social thought." Another afternoon Mr. Browning 
 came and finished reading his new poem to Kate. 
 " He has killed a fine dramatic fact," she wrote of 
 the work. It is noticeable that the sympathy between 
 
London Life 307 
 
 Robert Browning and Kate Field, so marked dur- 
 ing her Florentine days, diminished as years went 
 by. Miss Field was an enthusiast for clear, direct, 
 terse, and simple expression. Mr. Browning's style 
 grew more and more involved ; and while friendship, 
 certainly, is not made or unmade by literary style, 
 yet it may be true that this style of itself is an ex- 
 pression of the mental attitude behind it ; and then, 
 while the poet became more exclusively a figure in 
 society, Kate's sympathies grew broader and she be- 
 came more and more engrossed with the world of 
 affairs. The best of each nature — both Browning's 
 and Miss Field's — was hidden from each other. 
 Their paths diverged, — doubtless to meet again in 
 the truer life to come. 
 
 Soon after Kate's arrival in London in 1873, the 
 following letter reached her from Mr. Reid : — 
 
 New York, July 17, 1873. 
 
 Dear K. F., — I have delayed writing partly because it 
 was not imperative, and I was doing nothing but the imper- 
 ative things, and partly because I have been out of town a 
 good deal, speaking first at Miami University, then at 
 Dartmouth, and finally at Amherst. The speeches seem to 
 have gone off well, have brought me all manner of compli- 
 mentary letters from Professors, another degree of Master 
 of Arts, ad eundem from Dartmouth, innumerable invitations 
 and the choice attentions of our friends of " The Times." 
 I believe I did not say op-ponents or in-quiry once. The 
 audience were exceedingly nice and very responsive. 
 
 Smalley and yourself both speak of Mark Twain. I hear 
 he says he has a quarrel with " The Tribune." If so, it is 
 simply that " The Tribune" declined to allow him to dictate 
 the person who should review his forthcoming novel. His 
 modest suggestion was that Ned House should do it, he 
 
3o8 Kate Field 
 
 having previously interested House in the success of the 
 book by taking him into partnership in dramatizing it. 
 There is a nice correspondence on a part of the subject 
 which would make pleasant reading ; and if Twain gives 
 trouble, I 'm very much tempted to make him a more 
 ridiculous object than he has ever made anybody else. 
 
 You do not need to be told that most of the stuff he has 
 done for the " Herald " is very poor, because you have seen 
 it. It won't hurt you to know that your letters, on the other 
 hand, have received more praise than any you ever wrote 
 for us before. That one on the naval review for the . . . 
 was a model. The Rubinstein letter was also exceedingly 
 good. Both have been very widely copied. 
 
 Your little book looks very fresh and pretty, is getting 
 read, I know, a good deal in nice quarters, and bringing 
 you fresh friends, and looks as if it were selling well. 
 
 You ask about Bradlaugh. Give him a letter of intro- 
 duction, by all means. You spoke to me about him when 
 here, and interested me in him not a little. As for Wilkie 
 Collins, I will try to make it pleasant for him when he 
 comes, but I have no particular fondness for this business 
 of lionizing. Hitherto I have done what the club wanted. 
 This winter I mean to take things a little more easily, and 
 hope it may be easy and courteous when the time comes to 
 decline peremptorily a re-election. 
 
 Thanks for the suggestion about purchases. I think of 
 nothing just now that I want to get unless it is a Jules 
 Jorgensen stem-winding repeater, and it would be hardly 
 fair to bother you with a purchase of that magnitude, es- 
 pecially as it would not look particularly like your own on 
 the steamer when you come back. 
 
 Faithfully yours, Whitelaw Reid. 
 
 P. S. Here are a few clippings I find on my desk. Not 
 all nor the best I have seen. Poor Stedman did splendidly 
 at Dartmouth, but has been ill ever since. 
 
London Life 309 
 
 Your package is locked up in my box in the big cashier's 
 safe at " The Tribune " office. It felt as if you had put a 
 small consignment of ten-penny nails in it. 
 
 Thanks for the telegram about the " Herald's" work. I 
 knew before that they had asked you, and am not likely to 
 forget that you preferred the old colors. I only wish you 
 had been at Springfield yesterday. Still our second edition 
 looks well. But Bret Harte is n't used to the newspaper 
 pace, and the storm made the telegraphic work beastly. 
 
 W.R. 
 
 To trace the record of Kate Field's life from the 
 child who took her little friends to play in her father's 
 theatre in St. Louis in the deserted daytime ; from 
 the young girl who at fifteen wrote to her father, 
 " You don't know how I long to get hold of some 
 one who will strike fire ;" and on, — through her in- 
 domitable persistence in every year, — her experi- 
 ence thus reminds one of the artistic methods of Bee- 
 thoven in producing his symphonies. While in his 
 initial epoch he trod in the paths (with whatever 
 variation) of Haydn and Mozart, long before he 
 arrived at the creation of the Fifth Symphony he had 
 achieved his own method ; and the startling distinct- 
 ness with which he announces his theme at the outset 
 in certain emphatic repetitions of one note, the 
 phrase being echoed later, in varying degrees, re- 
 minds one of the manner in which, in Miss Field's 
 life, features appear, disappear, and reappear, on the 
 scene. Her life was one of dramatic sequence from 
 her infancy in St. Louis to her death in Honolulu 
 and the final committal of her ashes in Mount Auburn, 
 near Boston. Beethoven often announces his theme 
 with unmistakable clearness, then abandons it for a 
 time to strange uncertainties ; the key in which it is 
 
3IO Kate Field 
 
 to be finally set is still undecided, and the musician 
 wanders amid harmonies; there is an atmosphere of 
 vague apprehension, of intangible experiment, — a 
 period of listening, it would seem, for some diviner 
 melody in the air; then a phrase is boldly struck as 
 if by chance; it multiplies itself in swift, rapid vibra- 
 tions, and the theme is grasped. " It is as if a fearful 
 secret, some truth of mightiest moment, startled the 
 stillness where we were securely walking and the heav- 
 ens were sending back the sound from all quarters of 
 deep calling unto deep." And as the theme of that 
 great musical creation, the Fifth Symphony, is that 
 of a human soul endeavoring to escape the limits of 
 pain and attain to inward joy, so in this life of a 
 woman whose intense energy of purpose made almost 
 a tragedy of existence, there is seen, under all the 
 varying circumstances of her pilgrimage, the unity of 
 the theme running through her entire experience on 
 earth. 
 
 For now, again, in this London June, Madame 
 Ristori once more appears in Kate's life ; and the 
 biography and the incomparable criticism which Miss 
 Field had written of Ristori nearly a decade before 
 is republished at this time in London. On a Sunday 
 afternoon. Miss Field takes Mrs. Pattison to call on 
 Ristori, and the Italian tragedienne, with the fervor 
 of her country, takes Kate in her arms and envelops 
 her with kisses and caresses. 
 
 Another element of destiny came just then into 
 Kate's life. At a dinner-party she met Senor Moret, 
 the Spanish Minister and his wife, the Senora, with 
 Mademoiselle Gaetano and Monsieur Brosseau, the 
 latter of whom assured her that he was a republican 
 and wished to go to America. It was at this dinner 
 
London Life 311 
 
 that Miss Field, whose nature was as susceptible to 
 an idea as tinder to a spark of fire, first conceived the 
 thought of visiting Spain, and interviewing Emilio 
 Castelar, the president of the Spanish Republic, whose 
 political situation was at the time peculiarly interest- 
 ing. Mrs. Mark Pattison was again in London this 
 season, and Kate took her one night to Covent Gar- 
 den, where they saw Patti in " Ernani," and Miss Field 
 remarked to Mrs. Pattison that the prima donna sang 
 admirably and looked like a fashion-plate. At a din- 
 ner soon after. Miss Field met a clever Frenchman 
 whose hobby was coins, " and I believe he knows more 
 about them than any one else in the world," she said. 
 Sir Charles Dilke invited Sidney Colvin to lunch to 
 meet Miss Field, and later they went to the Good- 
 wood races, where Robert Barrett Browning came up 
 to her and recalled the old time in Italy when she 
 was in Florence and passed days with his mother in 
 Casa Guidi. The season flashed by. Kate went 
 with Mr. and Mrs. Mark Pattison to visit the Castilian 
 collection at a museum, dined with them, and met 
 interesting people. Anthony Trollope called often 
 of a morning. She went to a private rehearsal of 
 "King John" at the Queen's Theatre, and of Miss 
 Clive, the actress, she said in her journal: " She is 
 a very natural and original person, but I doubt her 
 power, in spite of the enthusiastic predictions for 
 her." She passed a morning with Mrs. Procter, who 
 spoke at length on Fanny Kemble ; she dined with 
 the Smalleys and met agatn persons of note and drove 
 with Mrs. Dorschemer to Drury Lane, where they 
 saw two acts of Ristori's " Marie Antoinette." A 
 note came from Charles Dickens inviting her to 
 Gad's Hill, which she accepted with pleasure. Mr. 
 
3 1 2 Kate Field 
 
 and Mrs. Clemens, otherwise the Mark Twains, were 
 in London, and Miss Field greatly enjoyed meeting 
 them. Mr. Samuelson, an M. P., meeting Miss Field 
 at a dinner, invited her to a naval review at Spithead 
 the next day, which she accepted ; and reaching 
 home after midnight rose again in time to make an 
 early start the next morning. One noticeable thing 
 in Miss Field's life was the way in which she always 
 met the spontaneous opportunity ; she had grown to 
 be peculiarly _/««7^ de vivre. At this naval review she 
 met Sir Vernon Harcourt, General Noble, and Sir 
 David Wedderburn, and enjoyed a most interesting 
 day. The young M. P., Mr. Samuelson, sent to Miss 
 Field tickets for a review at Windsor, and it seems 
 that she and Mr. Smalley set off together. Of that 
 day she records in her diary : — 
 
 " Lunched with the Smalleys. G. W. and I started for 
 Windsor at two, arrived at four. Took the Long Walk and 
 found seats on House of Commons stand. A splendid 
 sight ! Got back at ten o'clock, dined with the Smalleys, 
 and then returned home." 
 
 A collection of Miss Field's " Tribune " letters, with 
 various revisions and additions, had just been pub- 
 lished in Boston by Fields, Osgood, and Company un- 
 der the title of " Hap-Hazard," and her copies reached 
 her in London. Of the naval review she wrote a 
 vivid description to "The Tribune." She heard Wil- 
 kie Collins read at the Olympic Theatre; Garcia, 
 her master in singing, called on her frequently and 
 they had long talks; Alfred Austin, now the poet 
 laureate of England, was one of her callers, and she 
 found him " sincere and agreeable." With a merry 
 party of Americans she drove to the Crystal Palace, 
 
London Life 313 
 
 where they had supper. Du Maurier dined with her 
 one night, and she greatly liked him, and in the even- 
 ing Kinglake and Lord Houghton called. " They went 
 into raptures over my Japanese polonaise," she said. 
 Another morning Wilkie Collins made her a long 
 call. She lunched with the Smalleys, and went with 
 them to see Aim6e DescMe in " Maison Rouge," 
 which she found "very clever." A London friend 
 took her to Grosvenor House, where she enjoyed the 
 magnificent paintings. 
 
 On the July "Fourth" of that summer she was, 
 with the other Americans in London, at the recep- 
 tion given by the American ambassador, General 
 Schenck, meeting there President Roberts of Liberia. 
 That night Lady Franklin and her parliamentary 
 friend, Mr. Samuelson, dined with her; and while at 
 the table a telegram from the New York " Herald " 
 reached Kate asking her to go to Paris and describe 
 the visit of the Shah, — a commission she declined, as 
 she did not feel able to make so fatiguing a journey. 
 A July day was made memorable to her by spending 
 it on the Thames with a pleasant party which in- 
 cluded Herbert Spencer. Miss Field was asked to 
 sing, and she sang like a mermaiden, " all the way up 
 to Maidenhead." She heard Bradlaugh lecture on 
 Republicanism in France, Spain, and England, and 
 found him " very eloquent." The Marchesa del Grillo 
 (Madame Ristori) gave a little dinner for her, at 
 which she again meets the Morets and Lord Hay; 
 and later she makes an appointment for her friend, 
 Madame de Guerrebelli (Genevieve Ward), to meet 
 Mr. Chippendale. She " lunched and drove " with 
 William Black, and went to a reception at Kensington 
 Museum in the evening. On a "glorious day'' she 
 
314 Kate Field 
 
 drives with Mr. and Mrs. Hill and William Black to 
 Reigate on the top of a coach, and at night is at a 
 dinner where she meets Comte de Franqueville and 
 two Indian magnates : " the latter gave me a glimpse 
 of Brahmin life in India," she records, " very intel- 
 ligently, too." 
 
 The succeeding day she sends a letter of thirty- 
 eight pages to " The Tribune," and calls on Adelaide 
 Phillipps and Mrs. Jewell, the wife of the ex-Governor 
 of Connecticut, who are in London, and renews her 
 acquaintance with Mrs. Jewell. 
 
 The next morning Kate makes one of a breakfast 
 party as guests of Mrs. Inigo Jones, and she goes 
 with a g^oup of friends to St. Paul's. In the after- 
 noon Mr. Smalley took her to the Royal Academy, 
 " and I was not impressed," she said, " except by 
 Watts and Millais." In the evening she sees Madame 
 Judic at the theatre, and she records : — 
 
 " Clever in the verbal rendering of her songs, but their 
 effect depends too much upon indecency. I believe in no 
 art that is based upon sensuality. There is divinity in the 
 senses." 
 
 This brilliant London season came to an end, like 
 all things terrestrial, and Miss Field's plans included 
 a trip to the South of France. This anticipated 
 journey to the Pyrenees was rendered full of de- 
 light for her by the decision of her friend Adelaide 
 Phillipps also to visit that region. Kate gives a 
 little breakfast for Madame de Guerrebelli, and later 
 shops in Regent Street with Mrs. Smalley ; assists 
 at Madame de Guerrebelli's rehearsal in Lewis Wing- 
 field's studio, meeting there a group of critics and 
 actors, and records that the new star (now better 
 
London Life 3 1 5 
 
 known by her maiden name of Genevieve Ward) 
 "did Lady Macbeth admirably." At night she dined 
 at Anthony TroUope's, and finished the day with a 
 party from which she returned home at three in the 
 morning. 
 
 The next day Kate took a friend to visit Mr. Hen- 
 nessy's studio, and later she writes : — 
 
 "Then we went to James Whistler's by appointment. 
 He was very cordial, showed me over his charming house — 
 delighted with his pictures. Hennessy said he had never 
 seen Whistler so radiant. We remained two hours. Dined 
 at Hennessy's, met Appleton of the Academy." 
 
 The journal later runs on : 
 
 July 26. Drove to Stafford House and went over it. 
 Paid visits. Dined at Madame Moret's, meeting Sir Thomas 
 Henry, Pellegrini, General Schenck, and others. 
 
 July 2 7 . Reading and writing all day. Madame de 
 Guerrebelli called, and we discussed Lady Macbeth. Lionel 
 Robinson and Moscheles called. The latter gave me a 
 Japanese fan. Browning and Kinglake to dinner, and later 
 on one of the editors of the "Times" came. 
 
 July 28. Went down to Mr. William Dilke's at Chichester 
 for the first day of Goodwood Races. Lovely day — five 
 hours en route. After lunch drove to Kingsley Vale and 
 saw a Fairy Ring for the first time in my life. Charming 
 landscape ! 
 
 The last days of July came on, when the curtain is 
 rung down on the London season, and the 30th she 
 passed in writing letters, packing, and seeing callers, 
 and on the morning of the 31st Miss Field and Miss 
 Phillipps left London, Mr. Browning and other nota- 
 ble people seeing them ofif, " half smothered in 
 bouquets." She went directly to the Hotel Chatham 
 
3 1 6 Kate Field 
 
 in Paris, where they met a French princess. Rev. Dr. 
 and Mrs. Robert C. Waterston were in Paris, old friends 
 of both the ladies, and especially the intimate friend 
 of Adelaide Phillipps, whose life, later on, Mrs. Wat- 
 erston's sympathetic pen was to chronicle. But that 
 was still in the unforeseen future. The Waterstons, 
 Miss Phillipps, and Miss Field drove to many places, 
 lunched and dined together; and on the morning of 
 August second — a brilliant, radiant day of that bewil- 
 dering brightness known in sunny France — Miss 
 Field with both Adelaide and Mathilde Phillipps left 
 Paris for Bordeaux, where they passed the night, 
 sleepless for noise, and the next morning in a broil- 
 ing sun continued their journey to the Pyrenees, where 
 they found beautiful scenery and began drinking the 
 waters. Spanish contrabands abounded here, clamor- 
 ing to sell their wares. Miss Field's records of these 
 days are the usual ones of watering-place life, where 
 prescribed walks, drives, and spring water, speedily 
 become alike stale and unprofitable. " Sat in park 
 nearly all day. Addie went to church in the morning 
 and theatre in the evening. Both equally mad ! " so 
 runs one day's diary record. Ab uno disce omnes. 
 
 "The clouds sit on our shoulders," Kate remarks in 
 truly Kate-Fieldian dialect. The last of August the 
 Misses Phillipps left, and Kate was indescribably 
 lonely; but for two weeks she still persevered, made 
 excursions to Lourdes and other points, and her 
 physician still assured her she was gaining in health. 
 On September 15 she departed for Biarritz, and of 
 her day there she writes : — 
 
 "Took a walk in the picturesque town, saw many Span- 
 iards, drove and talked with a Spaniard who spoke English. 
 
London Life 317 
 
 Went to bed, but not to sleep. The dashing of the waves 
 on the beach kept me awake. Rose at 3 a. m. to prepare 
 for journey." 
 
 For the suggestion that came to Miss Field the 
 night she naet and talked with Senor and Senora 
 Moret at a London dinner-party, — to visit Spain and 
 meet Emilio Castelar, — she was about to carry out. 
 So she fared forth. On the next day, September 19, 
 she records this not encouraging experience : — 
 
 "At 4j^ A. M. started for boat in a drizzle. Arrived to 
 find 50 passengers crowded into a small and distressingly 
 dirty boat. I never had such a voyage. Never saw such 
 scenes. Weather good. Arrived at 7. Detained in quar- 
 antine two hours. Then allowed to go ashore without bag- 
 gage. Difficulty in securing room at hotel. At last found 
 a hole, with fleas in possession, at Hotel d'Angleterre. 
 Supper and to bed." 
 
 Miss Field's experiences in Spain were as lively as 
 they were brief; and the story is related in full, in her 
 own inimitable way, in her book called " Ten Days in 
 Spain." She had been walking about, she explained, 
 " on the top of the Pyrenees, with a glass of luke- 
 warm water in one hand and an umbrella in the 
 other," and by way of a variation from this mild 
 amusement she conceived the idea of going to Spain 
 and Castelar. She procured a letter to him from the 
 American Embassy, — Kate always had the diplo- 
 matic service at her sovereign command, — and hav- 
 ing been admitted to the presence of the President, 
 she characteristically proceeded to argue the political 
 question with him and to express frankly her own 
 views in favor of Cuba libre. She found Castelar 
 "an author and orator: I recognized the lovable 
 
3i8 Kate Field 
 
 man," she said, "but not the born statesman. A 
 leader should have profound knowledge of men," she 
 continued. " I could not feel Castelar to be in any 
 sense a man of the world." 
 
 Castelar's " exceeding amiability" impressed Kate, 
 and she described him as "thoroughly unassuming" 
 and as turning the conversation on America. He 
 " regretted that he did not speak Enghsh. He could 
 read it, and was very fond of Emerson, but to speak 
 it was beyond his power." He spoke French, though 
 not very fluently, and it was in that tongue that the 
 conversation was carried on. 
 
 For her journey into Spain Miss Field employed a 
 courier whom she christened " the Blinker." After 
 concluding her visit to Senor Castelar she drove back 
 to her hotel and rang for this extraordinary being. 
 Her sole instructions to him had been to buy three 
 pounds of grapes each day, and to spend his time in 
 finding out what the tradespeople thought of repub- 
 licanism. As " the Blinker " appeared in response to 
 her ring, she said to him : — 
 
 " Well, what do Spaniards say to you about the 
 government? " 
 
 " Madame, I have known the Spaniards twenty-six 
 years — " 
 
 " Yes, I am aware of that fact," interrupted Miss 
 Field. " Never mind what happened twenty-six years 
 ago. Tell me what happens now." 
 
 The " Blinker " proceeded with an hopelessly en- 
 tangled story, and Kate cut him short with the 
 question : — 
 
 " Do you mean to say that there are no real 
 republicans? " 
 
 " Parfaitement, madame." 
 
London Life 319 
 
 " My search seemed to be as hopeless as that of 
 Diogenes," said Miss Field afterward, recounting this 
 experience. 
 
 The crawling trains in Spain suggested to Miss 
 Field that the law of compensation prevails, as, had 
 the train on which she was to leave started on time, 
 she would have missed it. " Hereafter I shall never 
 despair of catching a Spanish train," she observed, 
 " for, although it may have started, I shall be sure to 
 catch up with it by walking over the track, because it 
 stands still much more than it goes ahead." 
 
 Of the Escurial she said : — 
 
 " I saw in its gridiron the bier of the past and present 
 Spain. This is the country that once ruled the world, the 
 country to which America owes its discovery ! Is anything 
 so incredible as history?" 
 
 A little note from Kate to her aunt dated at 
 Bayonne, Sept. 29, 1873, tells the story of her return 
 from Spain. " I am safely through the Carlist lines," 
 she says, " and in two days I shall be in Paris." 
 
 She returned to America that autumn, passing 
 the winter in New York, located in Gramercy Park 
 at No. 23, and entered with renewed zest into the 
 American life. She was in the midst of a charming 
 circle of friends, — the Gilders, Mr. Stedman, Prof, 
 and Mrs. Botta, Hon. Whitelaw Reid, Prof, and Mrs. 
 Doremus, and many others, to say nothing of the tide 
 of cosmopolitan visitors that set toward New York, 
 among whom Miss Field had a very wide acquaint- 
 ance. As usual, her time was filled with interests and 
 engagements of manifold character. She was almost 
 equally interested in music, the drama, and in picto- 
 rial art. She was a social favorite, and was much m 
 
320 Kate Field 
 
 demand as a dinner guest. Her reputation as a wit 
 was long since established ; she was acknowledged to 
 be one of the most brilliant women of the day; and, 
 withal, Kate Field had a warm heart, a very ardent, 
 generous nature,, and she was an almost ideal friend. 
 In one of her note-books is found copied, in her clear, 
 beautiful hand, this passage from Thoreau : — 
 
 " Is your friend such a one that any increase of worth on 
 your part will really make her more your friend ? Is she 
 retained, is she attracted by more nobleness in you, by 
 more of that virtue which is peculiarly yours? Or is she 
 indifferent and blind to that? Is she to be flattered and 
 won by your meeting her on any other than the ascending 
 path? Then duty requires that you separate from her." 
 
 The words take on an even deeper significance from 
 having been stamped with her noble appreciation. 
 The theme is further played upon and carried out in 
 certain words of Emerson, and it would be easy indeed 
 to multiply quotations from poet and prophet since the 
 world began to enlarge still further the significance 
 of authority. For friendship in its true sense is 
 the divine part of life, and the communion with the 
 angelic is best learned by communion with friends — 
 for the human being is, primarily, as well as poten- 
 tially, the spiritual being even in this part of life. So 
 divine an experience as friendship should be divinely 
 lived. It is a sacrament, and should be held in living 
 faith and perpetual sweetness of spirit. Friendship 
 should be held amenable to an appreciation of high 
 qualities, irrespective of the fact of personal return. 
 It is good for the soul to love what is good ; to esti- 
 mate at its true value an illumination of spirit, even 
 though it does not especially shine for one's personal 
 benefit. 
 
London Life 32 1 
 
 Kate Field's friendship was of this quality, and the 
 rare truth and sincerity of her nature impressed all 
 who met her. 
 
 During this winter of 1873-74 Miss Field was 
 writing for the " London Athenseum " a series of 
 letters called " Notes from the United States." In 
 one of these we have a glimpse of the early impres- 
 sion made of the Wagner music-drama: — 
 
 " The very latest sensation is ' Lohengrin,' " she 
 says ; " with Nilsson and Campanini in the principal 
 roles; Wagnerites are ecstatic." 
 
 Of Mr. Howells she wrote that his story "A 
 Foregone Conclusion" was by far the best thing he 
 had ever done, and that it held a revelation of unsus- 
 pected dramatic power on the part of the author. 
 
 A graceful little note from Mr. Howells to Kate 
 about this time runs : — 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — It is most kind that you like my 
 ditty and tell me so. I like it the better for its pleas- 
 ing you. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 W. D. Howells. 
 
 Miss Field was anxious to write for the Harpers, 
 and the well-known critic, Mr. Henry T. Tuckerman, 
 gave her the following letter of introduction to 
 them : — 
 
 Allow me to introduce to you one Miss Kate Field, 
 whose articles in the "Atlantic Monthly" and elsewhere 
 you doubtless know have proved themselves highly accept- 
 able to the public. A long residence abroad and a taste 
 for art enables Miss Field to write with much geniality of 
 spirit, and I am sure some of her personal reminiscences 
 and local sketches will be very desirable for your magazine 
 
32 2 Kate Field 
 
 or weekly. Please give any manuscript she may confide 
 to you your candid consideration, and oblige 
 Yours truly, 
 
 H. T. TUCKERMAN. 
 
 A little note by Miss Field, written on the blank 
 leaf of one of her scrapbooks, tells this story of one 
 year's writing : — 
 
 From June, '73, to July, '74, wrote fifty-seven articles, 
 making eighty-six columns, — • about one and two-thirds 
 column per week, — six short magazine articles, not reg- 
 ularly engaged, and devoted the winter to dramatic study, 
 so that it did not seem as if I wrote at all. 
 
 Miss Field must have confided to Mrs. Helen Hunt 
 (" H. H.") a new purpose that she conceived in the 
 previous summer, as, under the date of July i, 1874, 
 Mrs. Hunt thus writes, evidently having before invited 
 Miss Field to visit Denver : — 
 
 July I, 1874. 
 
 Dear Kate, — I'm sorry ; I think it would have done 
 you good. But there is no doubt that it is frightfully dear. 
 A summer in England would cost less. 
 
 Your letter troubled me. Dear. I never dreamed that 
 you were going on the stage for such reasons. I did not 
 know that you had a living soul in any way dependent on 
 you, and you have seemed of late so prosperous and at ease 
 that I was totally unprepared for what you tell me. I am 
 very, very sorry. I most earnestly trust you may succeed, 
 dear girl. The activity of the life may be a great gain. It 
 is that which has kept dear Charlotte Cushman alive these 
 late years. To me, who am ill directly unless I am asleep 
 by ten o'clock every night, the very thought of such a life 
 is terrible. But you have youth on your side ; that wins 
 always. Don't stay in New York through August. No 
 
London Life 323 
 
 water cure in creation can make that tolerable. Go to 
 Provincetown, Mass., — where I wish I was this minute, — 
 only three hours from Boston, twelve hundred feet above 
 the sea, never a hot minute. I shall go there every sum- 
 mer as long as I live, if I can. A shady field and grove 
 just behind the house to sit in all day long, and absolute 
 quiet and stillness. It will rest you and strengthen you, if 
 you can do without people. The house is small, and there 
 
 might be only Philistines in it. The summer Miss 
 
 and I were there, two years ago, it was delightful, — a 
 dozen really nice and clever people. Last summer there 
 was the other sort. It is so near Boston that there are all 
 kinds of chances. I don't know when I shall come home. 
 I say next fall, but a prophetic sense warns me that it may 
 not be till next spring. While I have touches of sore 
 throat I will not venture. I am very well, but over-fatigue 
 or exposure to damp even here will give me a slight sore 
 throat, so I know that the old wound is not yet fully healed. 
 It isn't so bad as you would think, living here, not by 
 half. There are pleasant people, and everybody on earth 
 turns up in the summer. I wish you- would let me know 
 how the venture goes. Write just a line now and then. 
 God speed you. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Helen Hunt. 
 
 It was indeed dramatic study that chiefly absorbed 
 her mind in the winter of 1873-74. For she had 
 decided on a new venture, — that of going on the 
 stage. She regretted that she had not been placed 
 there at fifteen, but there were many reasons why the 
 transition still seemed feasible to her. In appearance 
 she was petite, delicate, and so vivacious and spiritu- 
 elle as to appear ten years younger than her actual 
 age. Indeed, this apparent youthfulness signally 
 characterized her until within the last two years of 
 
324 Kate Field 
 
 her life, when ill health and anxieties produced in 
 one year the changes that might well have been those 
 of twenty. She lived so essentially the life of ideas 
 and purpose that no one would have dreamed that 
 the slight, graceful woman who looked like a girl, 
 with her clustering auburn hair and luminous eyes, 
 had seen even twenty-five summers. Her inheritance 
 of temperament was dramatic and she had been, as 
 we have seen, almost cradled on the stage. It was 
 only strange that this turning to dramatic art had not 
 appealed to her as a settled purpose years before. 
 Her life presents as many states as that of a painter, 
 and the manner in which they succeeded each other 
 was sometimes rather bewildering to the on-looker. 
 Miss Field had many undoubted gifts for the stage. 
 Her beautiful voice, her flawless and exquisite enun- 
 ciation, her keen perception of the canons of art, her 
 experience as a dramatic critic, — all these were in 
 the direction that attracted her. But as Shakespeare 
 wisely says, " It is easier to teach twenty what were 
 good to be done than be one of the twenty to follow 
 mine own teaching," and Kate was destined to prove 
 the truth of this bit of epigrammatic wisdom. Her 
 purpose, however, did not fail to win the ardent in- 
 terest, if not the entire confidence, of her friends ; and 
 no less an authority than the New York " Herald " 
 gave the importance of a leading editorial to the 
 announcement that Miss Field would make her dStit 
 as Peg Woffington at Booth's Theatre on Nov. 14, 
 1874. The "Herald" said: — 
 
 " We should be glad, indeed, if, as Miss Cushman retires 
 from the stage she has so long adorned, another American 
 artist should emulate her success, in the person of Miss 
 
London Life 325 
 
 Kate Field, who is to make her first appearance at Booth's 
 Theatre on Saturday night. If intelligence alone could 
 make an actress, there would not be the slightest question 
 of Miss Field's complete success, and certainly intellect is 
 always wanted on the stage. In literature she has shown 
 rare powers, — knowledge of the world, fine descriptive 
 ability, a delicate and far-reaching humor, appreciation of 
 the characteristic, and more than usual versatility." 
 
 Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton wrote to Miss Field 
 this graceful word : — 
 
 Dear Kate, — I see your debut advertised for next Sat- 
 urday night, and I cannot let you go to the theatre without 
 a God-speed from me. I want to come on and see you. I 
 can't go to New York just now, so I must send you my 
 written good wishes instead of speaking them, as I should 
 like best. 
 
 I have faith in your ability to succeed, because I have 
 heard such good things of you in private theatricals, and of 
 course this is the same thing, only more so ; and then I 
 think a woman of your intellectual force can reasonably 
 expect success in whatever she undertakes. 
 
 So go in and win, my dear. I shall await news eagerly. 
 Affectionately, 
 
 Louise Chandler Moulton. 
 
 Miss Field made her d^but in Peg Wofifington on 
 the evening of Nov. 14, 1874, in Booth's Theatre, 
 New York. This dramatic venture, which was writ- 
 ten down as a failure, was perhaps the severest trial 
 in Kate's experiences, and the more so that her own 
 impressions of that evening quite entitled her to 
 believe it a success. Booth's Theatre was crowded 
 from orchestra to the gods' gallery with one of the 
 most distinguished audiences ever gathered in New 
 
326 Kate Field 
 
 York. To a large degree it was one made up of her 
 personal friends, who were ardent in their applause, 
 and the d3utante was smothered in flowers and the 
 usual incense of partial friends. The next morning 
 brought her a friendly note from Mr. Whitelaw Reid, 
 which ran as follows : — 
 
 23 Park Avenue, Nov. 15, 1874, 9 a. m. 
 Dear K. F., — I congratulate you with all my heart. 
 You can never appear before a more severe audience than 
 that of last night, for it was made up of your personal 
 friends, who expected you to fail. And you did not fail. 
 
 I broke an engagement in the country last night to wit- 
 ness the debut, and so am writing in hot haste now, be- 
 fore starting to meet the wagon to be sent in for me to 
 Weehawken, this morning, to meet the early boat. 
 
 But I renew my very sincere congratulations, and am 
 always. 
 
 Very truly your friend, 
 
 WnrrELAW Reid. 
 
 This note Kate read before seeing the criticism in 
 " The Tribune," and regarded as a proof of successful 
 estimate. The criticism in the paper effectually neg- 
 atived this, and a letter that she wrote to Mr. Reid 
 can almost be read in the light of his reply, which 
 is as follows: — 
 
 23 Park Avenue, Dec. 4, 1874. 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — I received yesterday your note of 
 the, second, in which you say that I have stabbed you to 
 the heart by writing you an opinion about your appear- 
 ance on the stage and allowing the publication of another ; 
 that, in my place, you would have been burnt alive before 
 printing " The Tribune's " notice ; that your fair words, in 
 case of need, would not be confined to private notes ; 
 
London Life 327 
 
 that, thank God, you are incapable of meanness, and that 
 your ideas of friendship are Quixotic. 
 
 You will do me the justice to remember that, in common 
 with most of your friends, I did what I could to dissuade 
 you from your late venture ; and that after your appear- 
 ance at Thomas's Garden, in answer to your frank question, 
 I said with the equal frankness that true friendship re- 
 quired, that you had not shown a spark of dramatic power. 
 You knew, therefore, that I went to the theatre, as most of 
 your friends did, expecting you to fail, to break down. 
 Not doubting early the next morning that you must be in 
 need of the kindest words friends could honestly utter, I 
 hastened, before leaving town for a couple of days, to say 
 my utmost. I congratulated you with all my heart on not 
 having failed, — not having broken down. It never oc- 
 curred to me that you could, by any possibility, mis- 
 understand the significant omission to say that you had 
 succeeded. 
 
 " The Tribune's " criticism was to the precise effect of 
 my note. It said, with an effort to spare your feelings 
 which I fear you have not valued, that you had not failed, 
 and then with all possible kindliness of course pointed out 
 wherein you had not attained success. 
 
 I am deeply grieved at your note. But even if I had 
 done you the injustice to expect it, I should not have 
 changed the tone of Mr. Winter's criticism. I should be 
 as despicable as you describe me if I forced a most capa- 
 ble, friendly, and conscientious critic to say, in a great 
 journal, what neither he nor I believed, to sustain a 
 private friend in a course he and I thought unwise and 
 hopeless. 
 
 It would be idle to attempt to misunderstand the pur- 
 pose of your note. I shall not offend you by attempting 
 to keep up the old friendly relations. But I shall never 
 forget your generous and helpful friendship in the past. I 
 
328 Kate Field 
 
 hope never to miss an honorable opportunity of doing you 
 service, and I shall always be, 
 
 Your sincere well-wisher, 
 
 Whitelaw Reid. 
 
 Miss Kate Field, 145 East Twenty-First Street. 
 
 Yet Kate's own sweetness of spirit that never bore 
 malice, never held resentment, is indicated by the 
 following letter from Mr. Reid, which readily suggests 
 to the reader the kind of response made by Miss 
 Field to which it is the answer : — 
 
 23 Park Avenue, Dec. 29, 1874. 
 
 My dear Miss Kate, — I was interrupted in the midst of 
 proof-reading, late Sunday night, by the arrival of the little 
 box, containing the charming souvenirs you were so good 
 as to send. Believe me, I shall prize all very highly, for 
 the reason that, as you say, they are not so much mere gifts 
 as "bits of yourself." The rare old Dutch spoon is an 
 especial treasure, which will be most jealously saved and 
 used. My younger niece does not come on, for her school, 
 until next week ; so that you have provided a renewal of 
 the Christmas pleasures, to make bright her coming. 
 
 I wish that the New Year, so nearly upon us, may bring 
 you rest, health, all the success your heart can wish, and 
 happiness. And I am always. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Whitelaw Reid.- 
 
 There were two causes which contributed to Miss 
 Field's failure as an actress, — one of which was in her- 
 self and the other in the circumstances of the time. 
 That inherent in herself was a too pronounced indi- 
 viduality, — the inability to make herself a flexible 
 mould in which the character of another might be 
 poured, so to speak, and impersonated. It is not — 
 
London Life 329 
 
 as has been said — that she was "too intellectual" 
 for an actress ; no one is too intellectual for the art 
 which, in its ideal perfection, includes all arts ; but the 
 drama requires a complete abandonment of tempera- 
 ment in a way foreign, if not impossible, to the very- 
 nature of Kate Field. The other cause which must 
 have contributed to the disastrous result lay in the 
 fact that Miss Field had become entirely familiar with 
 the more natural art of the French stage, which differs 
 essentially from the more theatrical art then prevalent 
 and held as a standard on the stage in America. 
 The reader will recall that Kate had her first visit to 
 Paris and her first enchanted sight of the Com6die 
 Francaise in the winter of 1859 when she was just 
 past her eighteenth birthday; and at this impressible 
 age the traditions of the house of Moliere sank deep 
 in her mind. From that time she had been, in her 
 residence abroad, familiar with that natural school 
 of acting which is now seen on the American stage. 
 Twenty-five years ago, and, in fact, until the visits of 
 Madame Bernhardt, of Mounet-Sully, Coquelin, and 
 others and the change in our own stage traditions 
 had familiarized the public with the new school, — 
 the standard held by theatre audiences, however cul- 
 tivated and critical, demanded more of the artificially 
 theatrical than that with which Kate invested the 
 character of Peg Woffington. The public inclined 
 to believe that the actor should act, and even so 
 notable a critic as Mr. Winter may have somewhat 
 shared the traditions of his time, although his criti- 
 cism has always been a progressive art, and he has 
 led, rather than followed, the dramatic progress of 
 the times. 
 
 Mr. Stedman — always the ideal of the loyal 
 
330 Kate Field 
 
 friend — wrote a letter to "The Tribune" regarding 
 Miss Field's appearance which is so ideally fair in its 
 attitude toward the stage and toward dramatic criti- 
 cism, so finely appreciative without partiality, and 
 which, withal, relates itself in so universal a manner 
 to dramatic art at all times, that no apology is needed 
 for introducing this interesting document in full. It 
 is a criticism that deserves more of literary immor- 
 tality than is possible to the daily press. Mr. Sted- 
 man wrote : — 
 
 To the Editor of the Tribune. 
 
 Sir, — Permit an old contributor to write you with respect 
 to an event which has excited unusual interest and dis- 
 cussion. 
 
 My subject relates to the theatre, but I do not wish to 
 venture upon dramatic criticism. I am too much of a 
 stickler for the precedence due to trained service in any 
 department of criticism to set up my chance views against 
 the opinions of the sincere and practised writers who dis- 
 cuss theatrical matters for our leading journals. What I ask 
 leave to do is to state how a layman was impressed by the 
 event in question, and to refer, with honest deference, to a 
 few points which have escaped general mention. 
 
 I was present last Saturday evening at the " first appear- 
 ance on any stage " of Miss Kate Field. To begin with, 
 let me say that I seriously inferred, from Miss Field's acting 
 and the manner in which the play went off, that the dibut 
 was, upon the whole, an unusual success. The very large 
 audience — and I am not only speaking of the lady's friends, 
 who mustered in such numbers, but to the three galleries as 
 well — seemed, if one might judge by its close attention 
 and intelligent applause, to be under the same pleasant be- 
 lief ; so that I had nothing to disturb my illusion until I 
 read some of the morning newspapers. 
 
London Life 331 
 
 New York is a city of theatre-goers, many of wiiom have 
 observed the rise and decline of theatres and actors, and 
 their judgment, though not literary, is shrewd and valuable. 
 It is upon the verdict of such people that a player's success 
 or failure somewhat depends. For example, go upon the 
 Stock Exchange, where a thousand men meet together, rep- 
 resenting every type of character and opinion. Talking 
 with various members of that body, who also witnessed 
 Miss Field's performance, I find that their notion of its 
 success was similar to my own, and that they were no less 
 surprised than myself at the severe sentence pronounced in 
 a few of the newspapers, and the friendly but desponding 
 tone of criticism in certain others. 
 
 I have a most hearty respect for the judgment of the dis- 
 tinguished critic of "The Tribune," and for that of the 
 acute and sparkling writer who holds the post of dramatic 
 editor upon " The World." The articles of both these gen- 
 tlemen were careful, scholarly, and written with the utmost 
 taste, delicacy, and good feeling. Indeed, as to the latter 
 point, — when a brave and refined woman, one of our own 
 guild, dependent wholly upon her talents for a career, 
 returns to her father's profession from sheer love of it, — 
 how any writer could go outside of the record to inflict an 
 unnecessar}' wound is beyond my understanding. But I 
 wish to refer to certain points which even the admirable 
 critics I have cited have, it seems to me, not fully borne in 
 view. 
 
 These writers have paid Miss Field a very high honor, but 
 an honor scarcely to be desired by the most brilliant aspirant 
 at such a crisis. They discuss her representation of Peg 
 VVoffington as if they were criticising an actress of long 
 standing, not a debutante, appearing under trying condi- 
 tions. She is not a star who comes to us from another 
 region, where she has gained experience and reputation,, 
 but in one sense a novice, making her entry upon the most 
 difficult of professions. 
 
332 Kate Field 
 
 Neither an actor nor an artist of any kind can be " written 
 up " or down. I have no desire to attempt the former 
 process in Miss Field's case ; my interest is solely that 
 which every author has in the drama, and in the lives of 
 those who have won an honorable standing in his own craft. 
 In the long run, talent vouches for itself. But a novice's 
 career may be seriously retarded, especially in practical and 
 business matters, unless the facts that tell in his behalf are 
 fairly understood. 
 
 The house on Saturday night embraced a numerous 
 cohort, not only of the actress's friends, but of authors, 
 journalists, men and women of culture, attracted by the 
 unusual nature of the occasion. How many of these would, 
 under any circumstances, have advised in favor of her 
 appearance? How many were there who anticipated that, 
 whatever her talent might be, she would make anything else 
 than a failure ? 
 
 I have seen a debutante, who afterwards became a finished 
 and popular actress, fall into a distressing series of blunders 
 on her first night, even when in an inferior part and assisted 
 throughout by comrades no less thoughtful than Miss Field's 
 associates upon the stage. I have seen her awkward in her 
 movements and neglectful of the stage business ; have seen 
 her lose her voice, forget her cues, tip over tables and 
 screens, make wrong exits, — in short, barely struggle 
 through the play, to her own mortification and the embar- 
 rassment of the audience. An actress's friends, however 
 much they may sustain her, often, in their effort to render 
 an impartial verdict, are her severest critics. Doubtless 
 many of the acquaintances of Kate Field, who assisted upon 
 this occasion with warm hearts and kindly offices, were dis- 
 turbed by a suspicion that they were aiding to maintain the 
 decencies of a funeral — or some equally mournful affair. 
 The nearer friends came laden with flowers, it is true, but 
 somewhat as chief mourners bring camellias and tuberoses 
 
London Life 333 
 
 with which to strew the remains of a loved and lost one. 
 A select few, I am sure, were prepared to tenderly perform 
 the last offices, at whatever cost of pain and lamentation to 
 themselves. 
 
 These people must have been agreeably surprised. Their 
 flowers were bestowed with sentiments precisely the reverse 
 of that pronounced by the Queen above Ophelia's grave. 
 From the moment when the candidate made her entrance 
 and gained control of her voice, it was evident that they 
 would be subjected to no distress upon her account. Among 
 half-a-dozen " first appearances " I do not recall one wherein 
 the novice, from first to last, showed more self-possession, 
 acquaintance with her part, and ability to dispel the fears of 
 a sympathetic audience, or so fair a knowledge and instinc- 
 tive management of what is called the stage-business. In 
 a very difficult role, she went through the play without a 
 serious mishap of any kind. This is the more noteworthy, 
 since it is understood that, owing to the difficulty of securing 
 a stock engagement, she never rehearsed any stage-part 
 with a company until within a few days of her appearance. 
 Much of this technical success should be due to the teach- 
 ings of Miss Moran, and to rehearsals with Mr. Wheatleigh, 
 and much to remembered knowledge of details with which 
 she was famihar in her childhood. For, in one sense, again, 
 she is not a novice : in youth she had the atmosphere of 
 the stage about her, which, thus inhaled, is never for- 
 gotten. 
 
 A word as to the part assumed, and the temerity of the 
 lady in undertaking any leading part that would require the 
 weight of the performance to fall upon herself. Was not 
 this owing to the impossibility of making a d'ebui under any 
 circumstances of her own choosing ? Doubtless Miss Field, 
 who always has shown the true professional spirit, would 
 have preferred to begin with routine duties under a regular 
 and quiet engagement. As it is, she has accepted the only 
 
334 Kate Field 
 
 opening which, after many efforts, she could find, — that of 
 the off-nights at Booth's, and the assumption of a leading 
 part with all its difficulties and dangers. However arduous 
 the role of Peg WofiSngton, it seems to me as well fitted to 
 her as another part would be which some other actress 
 would find easier. We all know Miss Field's abundant 
 brisk wit and vivacity, and many are familiar with her esprit 
 and somewhat capricious raillery, both in public and private 
 life. I should think her high spirits and thorough uncon- 
 ventionalism would enable her to enter with zest upon the 
 part of Mistress Woffington. Her acting was often tame 
 and formal, as if under instructions, in the first two acts ; 
 but in the third, where most actresses are least successful, 
 and which requires so much movement and versatility, she 
 acted with great spirit, and frequently received genuine 
 applause. Her minor accomplishments — recitation, music, 
 dancing, etc. — are not, it seems to me, to be despised ; 
 they are so much clear gain, though only accessory to her 
 main purpose. 
 
 One other point, and I have done. The success of any 
 debutante in greatly impressing or "magnetizing" her 
 audience, even if she can under such circumstances forget 
 herself in her part, depends greatly, in my opinion, upon 
 certain qualities of the theatre and the stage. People re- 
 member the excitement aroused by Miss Heron's Camille, 
 in Wallack's tasteful little down-town theatre eighteen or 
 nineteen years ago. The actress readily established a won- 
 derful sympathy with an audience that hung upon every 
 accent of her thin, falsetto voice, and watched her slightest 
 motion on the stage. Not long afterwards I saw the same 
 actress in the same part, but in a theatre approaching the 
 proportions of Booth's, and the charm was almost entirely 
 gone. I scarcely believe that Matilda Heron, with her long 
 experience and unquestionable genius, would have made an 
 instant sensation if she had come out at Niblo's or the Win- 
 
London Life 335 
 
 ter Garden. At Booth's, last Saturday, the size, grandeur, 
 and all the associations of the stage and theatre told against 
 the effect of the play and of Miss Field's enactment. 
 
 I am sure, however, that the dramatic critics will watch 
 the progress of this lady — formerly one of their own num- 
 ber — with thoughtful and impartial interest, and if they see 
 her profiting by their hints, and exhibiting not only an art- 
 ist's devotion, but true histrionic power, will record every 
 advance made upon her first experiment. If I were one of 
 our actors at this juncture, when an old warfare is renewed 
 against their historic and beautiful profession, I should 
 warmly welcome the accession of a woman so enthusiastic, 
 cultured, and favorably known. If I were Mr. Wallack or 
 Mr. Palmer, gentlemen who work so earnestly for the true 
 success of the drama, and for the delight of this generation 
 of play-goers, I should try to make a place for this aspirant 
 in my company, and give her a chance not only to prove 
 her industry and sincerity, but to develop whatever genius 
 she may possess. In short, 
 
 " If I were King of France, or, what's better, Pope of Rome,'' 
 
 I should try to arrange matters so that all things would find 
 their right places with less of jostling and confusion. As it 
 is, the least and most that I can do is to relieve the editor 
 from any responsibility for what I now have written. 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 E. C. Stedman. 
 No. 205 West Fifty-Sixth St., Nov. 17, 1874. 
 
 Still, while Miss Field's appearance at Booth's 
 Theatre closed with the second evening and the 
 attempt must be classed as a failure, it is yet true that 
 for the succeeding three years of 1875-78, she was 
 almost constantly on the stage, appearing in a num- 
 ber of plays, and that the panorama of her experience 
 
336 Kate Field 
 
 suggests the subtle triumphs of Emerson's Brahma, 
 when he is made to say : — 
 
 " They know not well the subtle ways 
 I keep, and pass, and turn again." 
 
 Miss Field's first appearance again on the stage 
 after her fateful ddbut was on the ninth of the follow- 
 ing June, when a complimentary benefit was extended 
 to her at the Union Square Theatre in New York, 
 the invitation being signed by the Mayor of the city. 
 Bayard Taylor, Edmund C. Stedman, Whitelaw Reid, 
 O. B. Frothingham, Vincenza Botta, and other men 
 of note, and her performance in this was more than 
 a succh destime. The play on this occasion was 
 " Gabrielle ; or, A Night in the Bastile," — an adapta- 
 tion made by her father, Joseph M. Field, from Dumas, 
 phe. Miss Field appeared in the title r61e, in which 
 she sang an Italian hymn of the fifteenth century, with 
 such pathos and power as to bring tears to the eye. 
 In this play Miss Ida Vernon, that incomparably fine 
 artiste, appeared as the Marquise de la Prie, and 
 Mr. Eben Plympton and other able actors of the day 
 filled the cast This play was followed by one of 
 Miss Field's own sparkling comediettas, " The Opera 
 Box," — a clever adaptation from the French, in which 
 Kate impersonated Mademoiselle de Liria, a singing 
 role. Of this a New York critic said : — 
 
 "Miss Field quite surprised the audience with the vivacity 
 of her singing of a French chanson, and, upon an encore, 
 with the brilliancy of her vocalization of an English song of 
 her own composition." 
 
 In the following autumn Miss Field played in a 
 number of cities the programme including " The 
 
Lotidon Life 337 
 
 Opera Box" as a curtain-raiser, followed by "Peg 
 Woffington," in which her dancing and singing, 
 especially, caught the eye; and the press notices 
 given her in Providence, Springfield, Buffalo, Cleve- 
 land, and various other points on this tour are not 
 only favorable, but are often enthusiastic. So ap- 
 parent was her success that John T. Raymond, then 
 starring in Mark Twain's play, " The Gilded Age," 
 engaged Miss Field for the season as his leading lady, 
 playing Laura Hawkins to his Colonel Sellers. When 
 they appeared in New York no less an authority than 
 Mr. William Winter of " The Tribune " said : — 
 
 " The entrance of Miss Kate Field upon the American 
 stage seems to us entirely justified by her acting as Laura 
 Hawkins. It was full of refinement and intelligence, earnest 
 enough, not affected or stagy, and she met the trying scene 
 of passion and murder with a rush and force that were not 
 melodramatic, and that gave a decided impression of 
 strength, and the possibility of even better things." 
 
 There can be little question that if Kate Field could 
 have entered on the stage at a later period of the de- 
 velopment of dramatic art in America, the result 
 might have been far more favorable to her. She had 
 the natural method of the Com^die Francaise ; but it 
 was not until the first appearance of Sarah Bernhardt 
 in this country (in 1880) that the natural school of 
 acting was fully inaugurated here. The barrier to 
 Kate's complete success lay, of course, partly in her 
 vehement individuality, and also partly in the condi- 
 tions of the time. 
 
 One of Mr. Stedman's charming letters to her, 
 under date of Nov. 22, 1875, begins, "Dear WofiSng- 
 
 ton," and in it he writes : — 
 
 22 
 
338 Kate Field 
 
 " Last Saturday night I was a guest at the big Lotos dinner 
 to Lord Houghton. {Toiijours perdiix.) Occupied the 
 second place of honor, on the right of the President, Reid. 
 Was delighted to hear him speak more warmly of you than 
 he often does of any one. It seemed like old times. He 
 praised your Jefferson-Vezin letter ; said it was just what 
 he wanted, and would always be glad of that kind of letters 
 from you. Bayard Taylor and Chandos Fulton joined 
 in, and spoke in admiration of your pluck and talent. I 
 asked the latter personage, who introduced himself to me, 
 to tell me frankly what he thought of you and your pros- 
 pects. He said you did Laura Hawkins splendidly the first 
 night ; afterwards, through some cause he did n't understand, 
 not so well ; but that you were a genuine actress. I told 
 him you were succeeding abroad. He had heard of it. I 
 think it is about time to let the newspapers hear of it ; as 
 everybody in our group, and of course everybody's friends, 
 knows you are acting, and I fear some wrong statement will 
 appear. . . . Lord Houghton returns to England this week. 
 We all like him. If you ever see Swinburne, tell him that 
 Lord H. has backed him everywhere, and read his poem 
 ' From Spring to Fall ' at a dinner. It is now going the 
 press rounds. Tell him also that a revulsion in his favor 
 has set in, owing to the eleventh chapter in my book, which 
 surprised everybody. Bradlaugh is here, and goes out often 
 with Mrs. Wallace, and frequently to Frothingham's church. 
 Bradlaugh has become more refined and quiet since his stay 
 in America ; has recently been quite ill. Taylor is inter- 
 esting himself greatly in literary and public matters here, 
 and is a good fellow. I hope to see him the ' figure-head ' 
 here in our best projects : he is old enough, and loyal to 
 the core, and will do anything I ask him to. He ought to 
 succeed Bryant as Poet of the Century. Mrs. Bullard is 
 having a visit from Mrs. Moulton, and they both are mat- 
 ronizing Joaquin Miller, who knows how ' to take captive ' 
 
London Life 339 
 
 generous women. We elected Hazzard to the Century. 
 Did I tell you?" 
 
 In January of 1876 the American minister writes : — 
 
 January 31, 1876. 
 Dear Miss Field, — Categorically — 
 
 1. I thank (Jod you were not involved in the dreadful 
 crash in which poor young Boucicault perished so sadly. 
 
 2. We shall be glad to see you as soon as you are done 
 hunting " a local habitation." " A name " you have made 
 already. Some of us are always here, if friends drop in to 
 tea, at 5 to 6. My daughters are going to have Friday 
 again for their regular " at home " day. 
 
 3. Thanks for your sympathy with me under the infa- 
 mous . . . falsehood with which I have been assailed. . . 
 
 I have something to tell you, and something to ask you, 
 about certain of your friends. 
 
 4. Touching the opening of Parliament, I '11 do what [ 
 can for you, but can't encourage you to expect anything. 
 Vou had better consult with a Peer. The Master of Cere- 
 monies has written to me that seats can only be given to 
 a "very few ladies of the highest position," and refers me 
 to the Lord Gnat Chamberlain (did you know there are 
 a " Lord High Chamberlain " and a " Lord Great Cham- 
 berlain," the latter office hereditary?), and I am now in 
 correspondence with that sublime functionary (spell that 
 with a big S and F) to ascertain if any of my daughters 
 can have places. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Robert C. Schenck. 
 
 Among several pleasant letters from Mr. Moncure 
 
 D. Conway is this: — 
 
 May 29, 1S76. 
 
 Dear Miss K.'XTE, — I send you a letter of mine to the 
 Cincinnati " Commercial " which ma}- interest you. 
 
340 Kate Field 
 
 I ought to have written to you before to say that I lilced 
 your singing of the Spanish ballad very much. I don't 
 know whether any one told you of a bit of drollery which 
 occurred just after you left the stage. There was applause 
 which would have continued had not one of the gods of 
 the gallery caused a laugh by crying out, " I don't under- 
 stand it." To which another boy on the other side of the 
 gallery cried, "You don't understand it; I '11 report you to 
 the School Board." 
 
 I shall be glad to hear of any further engagements you 
 get. We have received a private letter from Halstead, al- 
 luding with pleasure to you and your prospects, which wife 
 wrote him were very good. 
 
 Faithfully yours, M. D. Conway. 
 
 On the death of Mrs. Reid, the mother of Mr. 
 
 Whitelaw Reid, this reply comes to Miss Field's 
 
 message of sympathy : — 
 
 New York, 23 Park Avenue, 
 July 26, 1876. 
 
 Dear Miss Kate, — Many thanks for your words of sym- 
 pathy. The whole case was, as you truly say, a most pa- 
 thetic one ; and even yet I have scarcely recovered from the 
 stunning effect of it sufficiently to realize the extent of the 
 bereavement. 
 
 Very truly yours, Whitelaw Reid. 
 
 Miss Kate Field, 
 
 15 New Cavendish St., 
 
 Portland Square, W. London. 
 
 The following letter from Wilkie Collins relating 
 to the dramatization of his novel, " The New Mag- 
 dalen " is of interest : — 
 
 90 Gloucester Place, Portman Square, W. 
 9 February, 1877. 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — Three times I have tried to get to 
 
 New Cavendish Street, and three times some atrocious 
 
London Life 341 
 
 obstacle has started up and stopped me. To-day I go to 
 Paris for a week or ten days, and when I come back 
 , " I 'm darned if I don't try again." 
 
 In the mean time, I have read three acts of the piece, — 
 with all the more interest, seeing that I know it thoroughly 
 well. I saw it (superbly acted by the principal woman) 
 in Paris about seventy or eighty years ago. I have also 
 got it among my volumes of . . . There is no doubt about 
 the " situation," but they won't do for the English stage 
 in their French form. As to Miss Ada Cavendish, I have 
 spoken to her about it. At present she is so ill that she 
 can barely get on to the stage, and she is too young and 
 slim to " make up " for a woman with a big son who fights 
 duels in the " sacred cause of virtue." It is a part for an 
 older actress, — supposing it has not already been tried on 
 the English stage. I must inquire and tell you what I can 
 find out when I return. 
 
 I send back . . . with this note. It would be easy to 
 change the scene of the piece to our war in the Peninsula 
 against Napoleon — and to make the soldiers Englishmen. 
 But we must first be sure that this has not already been 
 done ... be essential to the success of the play in 
 England. In great haste. 
 
 Yours truly, Wilkie Collins. 
 
 There is no opportunity left. 
 
 Very truly yours, Wilkie Collins. 
 
 The year of 1877 found Kate again in London, 
 and during the succeeding two years she played 
 frequently in her brilliant little comedy, " Extremes 
 Meet," and under the name of Mary Keemle (w^hich, 
 as the reader will recall, was a part of her own 
 name ) she played all through the larger towns in 
 England. A well-known press correspondent thus 
 wrote of her: — 
 
342 Kate Field 
 
 " The London managers and critics are attracted by Kate 
 Field's peculiar capacity, and are watching her progress 
 with interest. I am touched and impressed by the pluck 
 and cleverness of this little American woman, so frankly 
 and thoroughly American, wherever she goes and whatever 
 she does. Think of her fighting her own way in England, 
 travelling through the North country for the practice in 
 her art denied her at home, and at the same time finding 
 strength to write her letters, alike brilHant and solid, to the 
 ' Courier- Journal ' and the ' Tribune,' besides contributing 
 to the leading London reviews, and figuring in the most in- 
 tellectual and famous circles of London ! 
 
 " After playing at Newcastle, where she is also engaged to 
 lecture, she will probably appear at Dundee and Aberdeen 
 in Scotland." 
 
 In the role of Violante in " The Honeymoon," she 
 indeed won praise from the leading London critics. 
 The " Athenffium " noted that she had " a genuine 
 feeling for comedy," and that she w^as " an actress 
 of great intelligence and vivacity;" another critic 
 spoke of her beautiful singing, both in English and 
 in French, and added : " She produces her voice in 
 a pure, lark-like, and thrilling manner, and excels 
 particularly in expression ; and by nuances of phras- 
 ing adds to, or illustrates, the beauty of really fine 
 passages. She is a pupil of Manuel Garcia, Mali- 
 bran's brother, who predicts for her a brilliant future 
 on the stage." 
 
 Congratulations from New York came in the 
 following letter : — 
 
 New York, 47 East 25TH St., May 6, 1876. 
 Dear Miss Field, — I was very much rejoiced at the tele- 
 graphic announcements in last Monday's " Herald " of your 
 
London Life 343 
 
 success as Violante in " The Honeymoon." That is a bril- 
 liant comedy, by the way, more so in my estimation, even, 
 than the " School for Scandal." The part you took I should 
 think to be an admirable one for you. Please bear in 
 mind that I do not congratulate you now, simply at the 
 moment of your dawning success, as I suppose many will 
 who have heretofore withheld their praise, but that I have 
 always, always entertained the strongest beUef in your genius 
 for the stage, or in anything almost that you might devote 
 yourself to, which belief I shall still hold, whatever befall. 
 
 Your description of the House of Lords in the "Graphic " 
 pleased me greatly. Good-by. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Henry B. Millakd. 
 
 It was, perhaps, in this summer that, in company 
 with Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton, Kate made a 
 visit to Edinburgh as the guest of her valued friend, 
 Mr. Laurence Hutton, and his mother. Writing in 
 a press letter from Edinburgh of its unfortunate 
 classes, she said : — 
 
 " If I show the dark side of a beautiful town, it is because 
 I love humanity better than places, and believe that man- 
 kind is best helped by telling the truth. 
 
 " Is there no silver lining to this cloud ? Yes. Glasgow, 
 recently the wickedest of all towns, has waked up to a 
 sense of its own degradation, and now owns its water, rapid 
 transit, gas, and street railroads. Within a few years what 
 have been the worst parts of the city will be owned and 
 administered by the municipality itself. This healthy 
 movement is spreading, and Edinburgh cannot escape the 
 blessed infection." 
 
 The curiously prophetic cast of Kate's mind is 
 again revealed by her questioning in this letter: — 
 
344 Kate Field 
 
 " Why will not some of our kindly disposed millionaires 
 who are anxious to help their less fortunate brothers and 
 sisters study the new dispensation that has dawned upon 
 Scotland, and see whether it cannot be applied to the slums 
 of American cities? Should not Good Government clubs 
 find ample food for thought and action in such investi- 
 gation? " 
 
 And v/ithin the year 1899 the Twentieth Century 
 Club of Boston, under the able leadership of its presi- 
 dent, Mr. Edwin D. Mead, called an eminent Scotch- 
 man to its lecture -desk to describe the municipal 
 methods of Glasgow, with a view to their introduction 
 in this country with whatever modifications our con- 
 ditions required. 
 
 Desiring at one time to take a house in London, 
 her genial friend, Mr. Frank Millet, was assisting her, 
 and in regard to some details he wrote : — 
 
 " My pencil, Kathleen Mavourneen, is not the pencil of 
 a ready draughtsman, but I send you herewith such a plan 
 of your future residence as I have been able to construct, 
 with all the measures duly detailed. At least, this is the 
 upper portion of the dweUing. I think and most sincerely 
 hope that you may be comfortable there. I will do and 
 am doing my utmost to urge on the workmen. I have told 
 them that it is let for November, and that I shall be prose- 
 cuted according to law with most awful consequences if 
 I do not perform my contract.'' 
 
 The letter was signed " Your affectionate landlord " 
 with the added question in parenthesis, " Was there 
 ever such a thing? " 
 
 The following letter reveals some of the perturba- 
 tions that beset Wilkie Collins : — 
 
Londmi Life 345 
 
 90 Gloucester Place, Poriman Square, W. 
 London, Sept. 25, 1875. 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — I have just got back, and have 
 lield a court of justice on my servants. They all declared 
 that no stich lady as Miss Kate Field ever appeared at this 
 house, or did me the honor of leaving her card ; and they 
 all remember perfectly that I expressly instructed them 
 to show Miss Field upstairs into my study on the day when 
 I expected to have the pleasure of receiving her. The only 
 explanations of this contretemps are two in number, i. That 
 the servants have all three lied. 2, That you called at the 
 wrong Gloucester Place. There are two Gloucester Places 
 in London ; the oldest and first named I live in. It is 
 close to Portman Square (underlined on this address). 
 The other Gloucester Place lies out Bayswater way, close 
 to Westbourne Terrace ; and is known as Gloucester Place, 
 Hyde Park. The Editor of the Louisville " Courier Journal," 
 when he was last in England, went to the wrong Gloucester 
 Place (being invited to lunch with me). I asked a 
 " party " to meet him, and while we were waiting vainly 
 for him here, he was waiting vainly at the other Gloucester 
 Place for us. I am so sorry and so ashamed at what has 
 happened that I take kindly in the theory that you have 
 followed the lead of the editor. In any case, pray accept 
 my excuses, and pray give me another chance when we 
 are next in London together. 
 
 You deserve to succeed in these days of mean intriguing 
 and puffery. Your resolutions and self-respect are doubly 
 admirable. Whatever I can do to help you shall be gladly 
 done. If you go to Edinburgh, I know the Manager of 
 the new theatre and winter garden there, — Mr. Wybert 
 Reeve (my Count Fosco in America) , — and a letter to 
 him is heartily at your service. As for me, I am better, 
 but not yet well. In a week or so, I think of going to 
 
346 Kate Field 
 
 Germany for a month. Letters will be forwarded from 
 this address. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 WiLKiE Collins. 
 
 Another letter from Mr. Collins is as follows : — 
 
 90 Gloucester Place, Portman Square, W. 
 April 22, 1876. 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — I was very sorry to miss you, but 
 I sleep badly since my illness, and cannot get up in the 
 morning. The doctor allows me to get out for a walk (with 
 a patch over my eye), but he has not yet allowed me to see 
 my own play, and he forbids me to see your " matinee." 
 The lights and the atmosphere are the things he objects to, 
 and I am afraid he is right. The pain I have suifered 
 has seriously weakened me. I can only wish you success 
 most sincerely, and hope for another chance of making 
 one of your audience. 
 
 I am glad you liked the piece and the acting. You must 
 have been looking at the wrong " compartment " when 
 Cecil drew the curtains and opened the windows. It is (of 
 course) the first thing he does on entering the " drawing- 
 room." The play cannot end unless he does it, for 
 the matron and the policeman in plain clothes (who bring 
 the curtain down) enter by the window. The rest of your 
 questions I hope to answer viva voce, but I am surprised at 
 your never having met in real life with a woman who fell in 
 love with a man utterly unworthy of her. Oh, Miss Keemle, 
 Miss Keemle, have you still to discover one of the brightest 
 virtues of the sex? 
 
 Yours always truly, 
 
 WiLKiE Collins. 
 
 A pleasant little group of friends gathered at the 
 Boucicaults to watch the old year out and the new 
 year in, when 1877 merged itself in 1878, and Kate 
 
London Life 347 
 
 records meeting then Clement Scott, the well-known 
 critic, the Wyndhams, and Mr. Farquhar, the novelist. 
 It is difficult to realize that at a time little more than 
 twenty years past the telephone was a new invention 
 that was inspiring transcendent scientific interest. 
 The idea of the telephone dates back to 1844, when 
 Alexander Melville Bell of Edinburgh first published 
 a system of symbols by which the sounds of all lan- 
 guage could be defined and compared by scientists. 
 Many interesting experiments were made by several 
 persons, all tending toward the final invention; and 
 Prof. Charles Page of Salem, Mass., who in 1837 
 published an article on " Galvanic Music ; " and Dr. 
 Clarence J. Blake, the distinguished aurist of Boston, 
 who suggested to Alexander Graham Bell the human 
 ear itself as a model of mechanism in constructing a 
 phonautograph, — were among the early researchers 
 who contributed to the results afterwards achieved. 
 It was, however, in 1876, at the Centennial in Phila- 
 delphia, that the first definite recognition was made in 
 an official report, signed by Sir William Thompson 
 and others, stating that " Mr. Alexander Graham Bell 
 exhibits apparatus by which he has achieved a result 
 of transcendent scientific interest, — the transmission 
 of spoken words by electric currents." The inven- 
 tion was spoken of as " the greatest marvel hitherto 
 achieved by the electric telegraph," and when the 
 first public exhibition of the new invention was made 
 in Salem, Mass., on Feb. 12, 1877, connecting the 
 Essex Institute with a house in Boston, and music 
 and conversation were transmitted, the public amaze- 
 ment and excitement was great. All this range of 
 achievement deeply interested Kate Field. As the 
 mysterious writing of " Planchette " had appealed to 
 
348 Kate Field 
 
 her when she had sought to analyze and discover the 
 agency, she was again and always keenly alive to 
 intimations from the realm of unseen realities; so 
 that plunging headlong, so to speak, with all her 
 ardor and enthusiasm into the possibilities of the new 
 invention, was a predestined thing. In February of 
 1878 IVIiss Field thus racily describes her first experi- 
 ence with the new invention : — 
 
 " I sat at a desk, at the top of which was an electric bell. 
 On both sides of the desk, depending from iron arms, was 
 a small pear-shaped wooden instrument, bearing a strong 
 family resemblance to the stethoscope. The small end of 
 each instrument was connected with a telegraphic wire. I 
 was in the presence of the Telephone. ' Is this all ? ' I 
 asked. ' All ! ' exclaimed the superintendent. ' Is n't it 
 enough, provided the object be attained? Isn't simplicity 
 a charm in inventions as well as in people ? Would you 
 feel happier if the Telephone were the size of a steam- 
 engine ? Before you say another word, touch that electric 
 bell, put one telephone to your ear and the other to your 
 mouth.' Feehng quite crushed at being so sat upon, I 
 obeyed orders, and straightway I heard an unknown voice 
 exclaim, — 
 
 " ' All right ; what do you want ? ' 
 
 " ' Who are you? " I asked. 
 
 "' I 'm every inch a man, and by your voice I know that 
 my questioner is a lady." 
 
 " ' How far away are you ? ' 
 
 " ' Half a mile.' 
 
 " ' Will you whistle ? ' 
 
 " ' Certainly.' 
 
 "Sure enough, I heard with the utmost distinctness, 
 ' Whistle, and I '11 come to thee, my lad.' 
 
 " ' Capital,' I said. ' Now a song, if you please.' 
 
London Life 349 
 
 " Did n't I laugh when my unknown acquaintance sang, 
 ' Thou art so near and yet so far ' ? 
 
 " ' Why did you laugh ? ' asked the Invisible, at the con- 
 clusion of his song. 
 
 " ' Did you hear me ? My mouth was some distance from 
 the Telephone." 
 
 " ' I heard you perfectly. Now hear me breathe.' 
 
 " ^Yhen that breath came to my ear I was startled. 
 Then we whispered to each other, and finally the Invisible 
 exclaimed, ' Just one more experiment,' and he kissed me ! 
 I heard him. I can't say honestly that this final experi- 
 ment was as satisfactory in its results as the ordinary way of 
 performing the operation. It is not likely to supersede 
 old-fashioned osculation, \)\x\,faute de mieux, it will serve. 
 I am quite sure the young King of Spain resorted to it 
 recently when, forced to leave Aranjuez and return to Ma- 
 drid, he communicated telephonically with his fiancee. 
 
 " Three weeks later, when I next interviewed the Tele- 
 phone, the Invisible, who had never seen me, and had only 
 heard my voice during the short conversation I have re- 
 peated, began to laugh, and said, ' I had the honor of kiss- 
 ing my fair questioner three weeks ago.' This proves the 
 wonderful delicacy of the instrument, and how impossible it 
 will be to practise deception through it. Since then I have 
 heard four-part singing, ' sounding like distant music on the 
 water,' to borrow the happy expression of the Duke of 
 Connaught, who was delighted with the effect. It 's a singu- 
 lar fact that part singing, which is by no means true, comes 
 out beautifully at the distant end of the Telephone. Elec- 
 tricity has so exquisite an ear that it seems to harmonize 
 all differences. It will be a good idea for impresarios to 
 pass all their doubtful singers through the Telephone. 
 They will never be out of tune, no matter how flat or sharp 
 they start. Then, I 've heard a solo and pianoforte accom- 
 paniment, with every note and word as audible as possible ; 
 
350 Kate Field 
 
 I 've heard bugle-playing fifty miles distant that was charnn- 
 ing, and I 've heard an organ 1 30 miles away. Now I 'm 
 prepared for the deluge, or whatever Nature pleases. It 's 
 impossible to be surprised any more. Before long we shall 
 fold our arms, and let electricity do everything for us. We '11 
 go to bed and get up by electricity ; we '11 eat by electricity, 
 and be saved the bore of knives and forks. We 'U write by 
 electricity, and see by the same means. Yes, you need n't 
 open your eyes. I 've just read of the electroscope, the 
 province of which is to transmit waves of light by electricity. 
 Combine it with the Telephone, and while two persons, 
 hundreds of miles apart, are talking together, they will 
 actually see each other. Won't this be fun? If your lover 
 happens to be an amateur photographer, he '11 take your 
 picture, my dear, across the ocean. Only let electricity 
 circumvent the Atlantic, and I 'm its slave for life." 
 
 Kate Field had a strong scientific vein in her na- 
 ture. Anything in the line of unknown forces held 
 her with the most absorbing interest, and in her later 
 years, when Edison and Tesla were astonishing the 
 world, she made visits to their laboratories and studied 
 and wrote of their work. With characteristic enthu- 
 siasm, then, she gave herself to the work of making 
 known the telephone to both the English and Ameri- 
 can public. Her diary for 1878 tells a characteristic 
 story. On January 2 she records that she has 
 written two articles on the telephone for Leicester 
 and Ireland. On January 4 she writes: — 
 
 Telephone article in "Welshman." Letter from Ristori, 
 who will get my article printed in Rome, and says she will 
 do all in her power for the Telephone if I '11 come to Italy 
 to advance it. 
 
 January ']th, Monday. I have already written twenty-one 
 
London Life 351 
 
 articles on the Telephone and inspired others. My idea is 
 now to invite the Press to a Matinee T^l^phonique and get 
 one general chorus of gratuitous advertising before the 
 opening of Parliament, when everything will go to the wall. 
 
 ^th, Tuesday. Labouchere told Nash, the solicitor, that 
 the Telephone was splendidly managed, — that he watched 
 the way the subject was kept before the public without in 
 any way having the suspicion of advertising. He little 
 thinks that "Puss" of his "Truth " has had the manage- 
 ment of it all. In my opinion, women of discernment 
 manage the diplomacy of business infinitely better than 
 men. 
 
 9M, Wednesday. The Queen has invited Bell to exhibit 
 the Telephone at Osborne House on the 14th. Conse- 
 quently I '11 delay the press meeting until two days after, 
 which will be the day before Parliament meets. Am writ- 
 ing all the invitations myself, which is no joke. Shall be 
 particular to include all the leading provincial papers. 
 They make opinion. 
 
 10/,^, Thursday. Dr. Marston and Hermann Vezin met 
 at my rooms to discuss with me the Spanish play the former 
 has written on my adaptation. Neither Vezin nor I like 
 the second act, and, after much discussion, Marston has 
 promised to make the changes we think necessary. I be- 
 lieve in the play. When shall I be able to produce it? 
 Ah, when? All comes to those who can wait. 
 
 \\th, Friday. The Telephone needs nianaging, and 
 
 and I are going to Osborne with " the show." Miss Her- 
 ring will accompany me. Went to Professor Bell's to-night 
 and heard a quartette of tonic sol-fa singers. They sang 
 execrably, but the effect through the Telephone was excel- 
 lent. All the discords were set right by electricity appar- 
 ently, and all shrillness taken out of the soprano. I sang 
 through it to my own accompaniment, and they say both 
 voice and piano came out splendidly. 
 
352 Kate Field 
 
 i2th, Saturday. Took an electric bath. Believe this 
 form of electricity will do me good. Writing my Telephone 
 invitations for dear life and packing for to-morrow. Will 
 take my new gown of blue silk embroidered with rosebuds, 
 so that I may be prepared to go to court if asked. I must 
 be where I can report matters. 
 
 13/72, Sunday. At 9.30 a.m. Miss Herring and I drove 
 to Long's Hotel, where we took up en route to Water- 
 loo Station. Took train for Southampton, arriving at half- 
 past one. Going on board " Prince Leopold," steamed to 
 Cowes. Weather fair. Not ill. Reaching Isle of Wight 
 at 4 p. M., went direct to Marine Hotel, where we found 
 rooms and succeeded in being comfortable. 
 
 \/^th, Monday. Drove early to Osborne Cottage, where 
 Sir Thomas Biddulph invited me to come in the evening. 
 Arrived there all fine in my new gown at ,8.30 p. m. Met 
 Lady Biddulph, Sir Thomas General Ponsonby, Mrs. Pon- 
 sonby, and others. Very polite, and very courteous about 
 Telephone. I sang "Kathleen Mavourneen " to the Queen, 
 who was delighted and thanked me telephonically. Sang 
 " Cuckoo Song," " Comin' thro' the Rye," and recited 
 Rosalind's epilogue. All delighted. Then I went to Os- 
 borne House and met the Duke of Connaught. Experi- 
 ments a great success. 
 
 i^th, Tuesday. Didn't get to bed until 3 a.m. Up at 
 5. Took boat at 7 and reached London at 11.30. Drove 
 to "Associated Press," and sent off telegrams to America. 
 Went home and prepared telegrams for New York " Her- 
 ald," Newcastle "Chronicle," Liverpool "Post," Manches- 
 ter " Guardian." After dinner wrote notices for "Times," 
 " Telegraph," and " Daily News." Then with Mr. Munger 
 drove in hansom to the several offices and delivered copy. 
 
 xdth, Wednesday. To-day town all alive with the Tele- 
 phone news furnished by me. Our Matinee Tdl^phonique 
 a great success. Quite two hundred persons were present, 
 
London Life 353 
 
 including the American Minister, Sir Julius Benedict, Her- 
 mann Vezin, Genevieve Ward, Colonel Forney, Du Maurier, 
 and William Black. All delighted with Telephone. The 
 lunch was good, and nobody wanted to leave. I was on 
 my feet from 11 until 5.30, and when I got home I was 
 deathly ill. 
 
 I ith, Thursday. Tired fearfully. Took an electric bath 
 
 to revive me. Colonel came in during the evening 
 
 and said both he and Bell were delighted with my matinee. 
 Bell says my " Time's " article on Telephone is the best that 
 ever was written. Now I want to give some Telephone 
 
 concerts, and Colonel has promised to cable for 
 
 Gower's Telephone harp. 
 
 \%th, Friday. All the weekly papers full of the Osborne 
 House experiments, and I 'm considered a great creature be- 
 cause I 've sung to the Queen. Miss Ward, Colonel , 
 
 and I went to hear " L 'Orabra." A poorer opera and a 
 worse performance I never listened to. Only the tenor 
 deserved applause. 
 
 19/4, Saturday. Took electric bath and wrote a col- 
 umn on Telephone for the New York "Herald." Sir 
 Charles Dilke came in, looking very well. He does not 
 believe there will be war,' but thinks the peace being 
 patched up cannot last more than a year or two. He 
 promised to interest House of Commons in Telephone. 
 
 This episode of the telephone had an unforeseen 
 and an important result for Miss Field, in a way qu;te 
 undreamed of by her. From her childhood she had 
 never known what it was to be free from financial 
 anxieties. Curiously, her life had been attended 
 almost constantly by the results, or some of the re- 
 sults of wealth, without the wealth itself. She had 
 enjoyed such advantages, indeed, as money alone 
 could not insure ; as the beautiful friendship of Mrs. 
 
 23 
 
354 Kate Field 
 
 Browning, for instance, and other social privileges 
 that brought her in close and intimate association 
 with noble and lofty people. " Philosophy can bake 
 no bread ; but she can procure for us God, Freedom, 
 and Immortality," said Novalis. Money, likewise, 
 can procure a vast amount of commodities which 
 serve in convenience or comfort; it can even open 
 the doors of a great range of privileges* in art and 
 study and travel ; yet, with all that may be claimed 
 for wealth, it has absolutely no power over the best 
 and the highest things in life. The portals leading to 
 the great do not open to the golden key. 
 
 " For a cap and bells our lives we pay ; 
 
 Bubbles we earn with a whole soul's tasking. 
 'T is heaven alone that is given away ; 
 
 'T is only God may be had for the asking. 
 No price is set on the lavish summer ; 
 June may be had by the poorest comer." 
 
 Kate Field had freely enjoyed much of the best of 
 earth in her friendships with noble and gifted people 
 and in her own life of ceaseless aspiration and strug- 
 gle. Yet that the struggle was hard for a deHcate 
 girl, whose energy always far transcended her strength, 
 no one could deny. To her uncle, who had fre- 
 quently been very generous and kind, she yet sensi- 
 tively preferred repaying, so far as was possible, 
 whatever money he had given to her. It is possible 
 that the entire amount was not refunded, but it was 
 at least approximately and perhaps wholly repaid. 
 Nor was this done with any sense of bitterness or hard- 
 ship. Apparently she had never uttered a word of 
 complaint or disappointment when, after her vehe- 
 ment young assertion of her right to express her own 
 opinions regarding the issues of the Civil War-, how- 
 
London Life 355 
 
 ever they differed from his, — when after this, he re- 
 versed the intention he had expressed for making her 
 his heiress, she simply took the ground that he had 
 a right to do as he pleased with his own money ; and 
 that, as she could not place herself in mental obedi- 
 ence and subjection to his views, — as she would, 
 with all her ardor, espouse the cause of the Union, 
 — then having thus disappointed and in a way defied 
 him, it was not right, she reasoned, that she should 
 avail herself of his generosity. That she longed for 
 his friendly regard and protection always was true. 
 Equally true it proved that Kate yvas as high-spirited 
 as she was sensitive, and that she would never bear 
 any infringement of her own sense of justice. There 
 should be no implication here on the character of Mr. 
 Sanford. He was a man of generous impulses and 
 of many admirable deeds. If he had his defects, he 
 simply shared the common lot of all humanity. He 
 was a keen, shrewd business man, very proud of 
 his beautiful and gifted wife, Kate's idolized "Aunt 
 Corda," and exceedingly generous and good to her 
 relatives; but Kate's nature was an enigma to him, 
 and to its labyrinth he held no clue. In her first 
 year in Italy as a girl of eighteen she once wrote 
 to her aunt: — 
 
 " I feel more and more that Uncle Milt is disappointed 
 in me, and I grieve at it, but regrets are useless. He ought 
 to understand my real feelings, and he knows that were he 
 in my position he would be actuated by the same desires. I 
 feel that with my ideas of right and wrong, with my convic- 
 tions, he would ever be incensed with me for almost every- 
 thing I might do. He thinks my effect upon his wife is 
 injurious, for he has often said so ; certainly his letters to 
 me bear every evidence of an entire misunderstanding of 
 
356 Kate Field 
 
 my motives and character. Then it is better for all that I 
 do my duty. My first thought is my mother." 
 
 It is quite probable that Kate might have been 
 more tactful with advantage to herself; but she 
 always had the defects of her qualities. If she felt 
 that she was misunderstood, she scorned to explain 
 herself to the person in question when sometimes 
 explanation might have been better. Yet with all 
 her heart she longed for harmony and good will, and 
 in a letter to her Aunt Corda in regard to an ex- 
 pression from her Uncle Milton which she felt to be 
 unjust, she said : — 
 
 " Let me say, too, in my heart I bear no malice toward 
 Mr. Sanford ; he knows not what he does, and fails to see 
 me in my real character. Should ■ misfortune or sorrow 
 ever remove the scales from his eyes, and his opinion of 
 me change, I shall be only too happy to bury the past. 
 For me life is too short to be devoted to hatred and bick- 
 ering. Until that time comes my proper womanly pride 
 will make me look upon him as a stranger. . . . Family 
 dissensions are terrible ; but in all this matter, from begin- 
 ning to end, my conscience does not reproach me. If it 
 did, I should not hesitate to plead for pardon wherever I 
 had unwittingly done wrong." 
 
 There is no earnest life in which the temptation to 
 command the stones to become bread, and to enjoy 
 all the kingdoms of the world, does not present itself. 
 To Kate it came in the guise of her uncle's and 
 aunt's desire that she should accept their home and 
 protection and resign her ambitions, which, to her, 
 would have been simply to stifle her energies. In 
 reply to one letter from her uncle, she wrote: — 
 
London Life 357 
 
 " To solemnly declare that I will never appear in public 
 is beyond my power. I would make no such promise to 
 any human being, not even to my dear father and mother, 
 were they alive, — but they would not ask it. If I have 
 the gift of speaking ; if I can move people by so doing, and 
 if in addition I can make money, — I think it my duty to 
 use all the faculties given me. 
 
 "You offer to put aside for my use the interest on 
 g 1 0,000, provided I will give up at least ;g 10,000 a year! 
 Don't you see how impossible this is ? I want money for 
 others as well as for myself. I want to help the Wilcoxes ; 
 I want if I live to do a thousand things. It is useless to 
 cramp me. If I am deprived by health of an active Hfe, 
 then I must be resigned to fate, and accept poverty if nec- 
 essary, but until then I want freedom to work in whatever 
 direction I feel called. 
 
 " I don't want your money. Uncle Milt, — I want health 
 and independence; but to prove I am not mercenary, I 
 will compromise. Withdraw your offer of ^600 a year, — 
 for I suppose that is the amount, — and I will consider 
 Aunt Corda's health in all that I may do publicly, lectur- 
 ing comparatively little and making every effort not to go 
 great distances. Next winter (D. V.) I have no desire to 
 lecture extensively ; but I shall have something to say, if I 
 live, about the low-down people of England, and I want to 
 say it in New York, Boston, and other cities." 
 
 A biography must be a record of facts ; and Kate 
 Field's life was so largely determined in all her early 
 womanhood by the influence and attitude of her 
 uncle and aunt that its story could not be adequately 
 presented without these references. But all this must 
 not be taken too seriously. Kate was a very sensi- 
 tive, high-strung girl, independent to a fault, and yet 
 more dependent on understanding and sympathy than 
 
358 Kate Field 
 
 any one, except her gentle mother, could realize; 
 and such a nature inevitably encounters discords in 
 its ardor and uncompromising demands. A more 
 mercurial nature than that of Kate Field never lived. 
 She had a quick temper, but its flash was as brief as 
 it was swift, and she never held ill-feeling. She was 
 always more than ready to forgive, or to ask to be 
 forgiven if she felt she had been in the wrong. Her 
 life, as we have seen, was a most arduous struggle. 
 It was, to the eye of the world, a very brilliant one. 
 She was sunny, joyous, witty; she was always a 
 charming presence, with an air of elegance about her 
 that was due both to her personal distinction of 
 manner and her Parisian completeness of costume; 
 but at what cost of energy all this outer life was 
 achieved no one could have dreamed. 
 
 Singularly, and in the most unforeseen way, the tide 
 of financial fortune was now to set toward Kate Field. 
 For her services in the unique way in which she had 
 been instrumental in thus introducing the telephone 
 to the public, the Bell Telephone Company gave her 
 a number of shares. At the time they had no great 
 value, nor, perhaps, was it definitely foreseen that 
 they would have ; but this stock became, as the world 
 knows, a very lucrative investment, and Miss Field 
 soon found herself the possessor of a moderate little 
 fortune verging toward some two hundred thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 This little fortune was not realized, however, imme- 
 diately, nor would any degree even of fabulous wealth 
 have ever lessened Kate's active efforts in one direc- 
 tion or another. Work was to her expression, and 
 financial ease would simply have enabled her to 
 insure for it better conditions. 
 
London Life 359 
 
 A great number of very interesting letters from the 
 most prominent people of the day were showered 
 upon Miss Field in connection with the interest that 
 she aroused in the new invention which was the initi- 
 ative of the modern advance in physical science 
 that is destined to change all the relations of men. 
 An autograph letter from Lord Beaconsfield to her 
 under date of Jan. 19, 1878, is as follows: — 
 
 Madame, — Her Majesty the Queen expresses so much 
 interest in the telephone that His Noble Lordship, the 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs, suggests that a trial of this in- 
 vention be made in the private parlors of the home office 
 on Friday morning at eleven o'clock. The Earl of Beacons- 
 field concurs. You are hereby invited to be present and, if 
 you are disposed, to sing some selections to be transmitted 
 from the Library over the wire. His Lordship would be 
 obliged with the favor. With respect, madame, I am, 
 
 Yours, etc., Beaconsfield. 
 
 To Miss Kate Field. 
 
 Another interesting letter of this time was the fol- 
 lowing from Mr. Alexander Graham Bell : — 
 
 London, 115 Cannon St., Jan. 18, 1878. 
 Miss Kate Field. 
 
 Dear Madam, — I am requested by Sir Thomas Biddulph 
 to convey to you Her Majesty's thanks for your assistance 
 at the telephone experiment at Osborne. 
 
 In his letter to me Sir Thomas says : I hope you are 
 aware how much gratified and surprised the Queen was at 
 the exhibition of the Telephone here on Monday evening. 
 Her Majesty desires me to express her thanks to you and 
 the ladies and gentlemen who were associated with you on 
 that occasion. I am. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Alexander Graham Bell. 
 
360 Kate Field 
 
 Another from a member of the peerage in attend- 
 ance at court wrote : — 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — The Prince Imperial is very anxious 
 to test the Telephone as Macduff and I did the other day. 
 I promised to write to him after hearing from you, if it 
 would be convenient for him to fix his own day and time. 
 He is very much engaged just now, and it would be a great 
 chance if he could come on your appointment. Please let 
 me have a line by bearer or as soon as you can. 
 
 Absorbing as was the fascinating interest in the 
 telephone, it by no means exclusively occupied Miss 
 Field's time and thought. She was writing brilliant 
 letters to the New York " Herald ; " constantly send- 
 ing news by cable ; she was an editorial writer on the 
 " London Times " ; she was contributing to " Truth " 
 a series of humorous letters on the various kaleido- 
 scopic aspects of London life ; she was appearing at 
 the Princess Theatre nightly for a part of this time, 
 in her own comedy " Extremes Meet," which, as a 
 " curtain-raiser," preceded the play of the evening, and 
 she was then, as always, a brilliant figure in the social 
 life of the day. In a press letter describing London 
 in the season, she gives a vivid page out of her own 
 experiences when she writes : — 
 
 " While nothing in the world can compensate me for the 
 absence of a bright sun and dry atmosphere, I yet like 
 London, in spite of its climate. I like it best in the winter 
 months, when the weather is worst. I like it because of the 
 people. 
 
 " ' What ! out of the season ? ' Yes, precisely for this 
 reason. During May, June, and July, which are called the 
 season because extreme fashion comes up from the country 
 to go to the opera, inspect the Royal Academy, and visit one 
 
London Life 361 
 
 another, — everything is topsy-turvy. Life is a succession 
 of balls and receptions, four and five deep nightly. You see 
 nobody except for five minutes in the glare of gaslight, for 
 you no sooner arrive at one party than it is time to go to 
 another. As the majority of London houses are very small, 
 and the success of a party depends upon its size, as the rule 
 is to invite three times as many people as can be accom- 
 modated, there is a possibility of not being able to get up 
 stairs, in which dilemma you hail your host and hostess, as 
 ships hail one another at sea, by means of signals. Under 
 these circumstances, I do not call society satisfactory. It is 
 a delusion, a snare, a madness, an idiotic invention of a 
 barbaric civilization, an unmitigated bore. 
 
 " This is London during the season. London out of season 
 tells a different tale ; and, mark the insolence of Fashion ! 
 three and a half millions of people reside in London from 
 January until December, only taking vacations during 
 August and September ; but because a few thousand butter- 
 flies appear with the early summer, this big, bustling Babel 
 is out of season so long as the butterflies do not flutter in 
 Hyde Park ! London out of season, I repeat, is most inter- 
 esting. How can it be otherwise when it is not only the 
 centre of Great Britain and Ireland, attracting to it the 
 brains and energy of the United Kingdom, but the centre 
 of the world, luring, if only for a moment, everybody from 
 everywhere? If, therefore, as I sincerely believe, the 
 proper study of mankind is man, where else can the 
 observer so readily whet his curiosity, and revel in variety of 
 culture and intelligence? The cream of external life is 
 there, writes Hawthorne ; and whatever merely intellectual 
 or natural good we fail to find perfect in London, we may 
 as well content ourselves to seek the unattainable thing no 
 farther on this earth. 
 
 " Almost all the clever literary, artistic, scientific, and 
 critical English men and women reside permanently in 
 
362 Kate Field 
 
 London or its vicinity. They must of necessity be near the 
 great market which demands what they can supply. These 
 in themselves are one of the most magnetic features of 
 society ; for what can be more attractive to a cultivated 
 person than a dinner with Robert Browning, whose conver- 
 sation is as entertaining and varied as the museum at South 
 Kensington ; a visit to George Eliot and George Lewes, — 
 she, perhaps, the cleverest woman living, and he a really 
 brilliant man ; a walk along the Thames with that great, 
 contradictory, inconceivable, intellectual despot, Thomas 
 Carlyle ; a matinee musicale at a charming house, with 
 Prince Poniatowski and Miss Virginia Gabriel at the piano, 
 and perhaps Joachim at the violin ; and receptions where 
 you are sure to meet Tyndall, Huxley, Herbert Spencer, 
 Miss Thackeray, and others equally interesting though un- 
 known to fame? All this one m^y obtain before the 
 Christmas holidays. In February the assembling of Parlia- 
 ment brings together whatever there is of political emi- 
 nence ; and, to my way of thinking, — although I cordially 
 detest the form of government, which is that of a pure aris- 
 tocracy; although the House of Commons more or less 
 muddles every reform it attempts, — many of its members 
 are the most delightful companions. The very men whose 
 public careers are utterly opposed — from my point of view, 
 be it understood — to every principle of justice are charm- 
 ing socially ; and while we fight the moment politics be- 
 comes the subject of conversation, we never cease to be 
 good-natured. We find so many topics upon which to 
 sympathize as to tolerate each other's failings (for of course 
 I am thought as mad as I consider them wrong-headed and 
 obstinate), and the acquaintances of an hour become the 
 stanch friends of a lifetime. Then, when I meet an 
 advanced English liberal, I embrace him (metaphorically) 1 
 on the spot, seeing no difference between him and a fine 
 American, saving that often he is more cultivated, and 
 
London Life 363 
 
 therefore more after my own heart. Of course these speci- 
 mens are rare, but when found they should be treasured ; 
 for I really know nothing nobler in humanity than an un- 
 prejudiced, radical, first-class English gentleman. His 
 respect for women is not outdone by the most chivalrous 
 American, although he may be less demonstrative in those 
 little attentions to which we are accustomed ; his belief in 
 women's capacity is not exceeded by that of George WiUiam 
 Curtis ; and his friendly feeling toward America is so frank 
 and so optimistic as to make you tremble lest he may 
 decide to cross the Atlantic and discover that we, too, have 
 our plague-spots. The world does not often hear of this 
 type of Englishman, but he exists ; otherwise, how could I 
 know him? " 
 
 A Shakespeare Memorial Association had been 
 formed in London in 1874 whose object was to build 
 at Stratford-on-Avon a theatre worthy of the memory 
 of the poet, and to further the interests of dramatic 
 art and culture. Mr. Charles E. Flower gave strength 
 and reality to the scheme by endowing it with a site 
 on the banks of the river within view of the church 
 where Shakespeare is buried. It was resolved to 
 build a theatre, a library for Shakespearian books 
 and a gallery for Shakespearian paintings and sculp- 
 ture. The land to spare after it was thus occupied 
 was laid out in gardens sloping down to the river, 
 that mirrors them in its calm bosom. 
 
 In this work Miss Field was deeply interested, and 
 when in the spring of 1878 it was resolved to hold a 
 week's festival in the new theatre, she was one of the 
 accomplished group of actors and musicians who gave 
 their services. For the opening Dr. Westland Mars- 
 ton had written a poem which Miss Field was asked 
 to recite. The evening came, and before a house 
 
364 Kate Field 
 
 crowded with the intellect and fashion of London that 
 came down on a special train, Miss Field was led on 
 the stage by Mr. Chatterton, to recite the opening 
 address, written by Dr. Westland Marston. She was 
 received with a hearty round of applause, and she 
 declaimed the poem with admirable effect. The epi- 
 logue was in complete harmony with the time and 
 object of the hour: — 
 
 " To-day — the day that marks our Shakespeare's birth — 
 In this new fane raised on his native earth, 
 We greet you, friends. Here, trust we, with each aid 
 Our later arts afford, shall be displayed 
 The events and beings that his fancy drew. 
 Amid the scenes which met his actual view ; 
 And where of yore his mortal voice was heard, 
 A thousand hearts be by his spirit stirred — 
 That spirit, clear, profound, which ne'er mistook 
 One line, one phrase of Nature's varied book, 
 Solved all its meanings, secret or perplexed. 
 And found the cipher easy as the text.'' 
 
 " Much Ado About Nothing " was the comedy 
 selected to open this first season of playing in the 
 Memorial Theatre, and it was received with every 
 manifestation of satisfaction. Miss Helen Faucit, 
 looking like a picture out of some old-world theatri- 
 cal album, showed how genius may overcome age, 
 even in acting. She was a graceful Beatrice : her 
 business was full of interest to those who would con- 
 trast so-called modern naturalness with studied art, 
 and her voice was as soft and musical as it had been 
 thirty years before, when the art world of London was 
 at her feet. 
 
 The most fashionable evening of the week's festival 
 was the musical night, when the stage of the new 
 theatre was occupied by a concert party, including 
 
London Life 365 
 
 Mrs. Osgood, Kate Field, Mme. Antoinette Sterling, 
 Mr. W. H. Cummings, Mr. W. Shakespeare, and 
 Mr. Santley, The London Concert and Glee Union, 
 Mme. Arabella Goddard and Sir Julius Benedict 
 Mr. William Shakespeare, who did not claim to be 
 a descendant of the bard, was not unlike the most 
 popular and best-authenticated portraits of his name- 
 sake. Mrs. Osgood was in excellent voice, and the 
 purity of her style and her exquisite dramatic skill 
 lent a fresh charm to " Orpheus with his Lute," very 
 tenderly set by Arthur Sullivan. She also sang 
 " Blow, blow, thou Winter Wind," and on her lips the 
 " As You Like It " words had a new and touching 
 significance. Miss Field had an enthusiastic recep- 
 tion. She sang, " I Know a Bank," "Where the Bee 
 Sucks," and " Should he Upbraid " in a manner in 
 which there was no trace of the amateur. She sang 
 the difficult music with precision and her enunciation 
 was especially admirable. 
 
 During this week, while in Stratford-on-Avon, Miss 
 Field was the guest of the manager of this Shake- 
 spearian Festival. To her Aunt Corda Kate wrote : 
 
 " Dr. Westland Marston said he 'd write the address if 
 I 'd deliver it, so I promised, and I had a nice lot of verse 
 to get into my head for one night, but having recited it in 
 town to Dr. Marston, Hermann Vezin, and Mrs. Sterling — 
 the best judges in the world — and having had their appro- 
 bation, I went before the audience here with less trepida- 
 tion than I otherwise should have felt, and made what all 
 the papers call a 'great success.' I am very glad, being 
 an American. Two nights later, I sang ' I Know a Bank,' 
 ' Where the Bee Sucks,' and ' Should he Upbraid ' at the 
 concert, and was complimented by Sir Julius Benedict, 
 Madame Arabella Goddard and others." 
 
366 Kate Field 
 
 Very lovely Kate looked on these appearances. 
 On the first night she was in a Paris costume. of a 
 silvery blue with water-lilies drooping from the cor- 
 sage ; and on the musical night, in full evening dress 
 of creamy white with the glimmer of pearls around 
 her throat and wearing, as her only ornament, the 
 little chain and locket given to her by Robert 
 Browning, she was exquisite in her simplicity and 
 elegance. 
 
 So interested did Miss Field become in the com- 
 pletion of this theatre that on the twenty-second of 
 May following, she gave for it a benefit performance 
 in London which was a memorable occasion. With 
 her indefatigable zeal she had undertaken to secure 
 subscriptions from American friends for the final 
 decoration of the interior of the theatre, and a large 
 blank book filled with the names and amounts sent 
 testify to her success. The list includes the names of 
 Longfellow, Mr. and Mrs. Fields,^ Mr. Stedman, Mrs. 
 Anne Lynch Botta, Henry James, and a great number 
 of the most distinguished people in this country. The 
 entertainment that she organized and carried through 
 with her unfailing energy was a notable success. An 
 American in London wrote to her, saying : — 
 
 " I am proud of you as an American. No one but an 
 American could have achieved such a splendid success 
 as you have done. In your entertainment yesterday 
 afternoon I was present and was delighted with all the 
 arrangements." 
 
 Miss Field conceived the idea of introducing the 
 wonder of the day— the telephone — at this matin6e 
 for the benefit of the Shakespeare Memorial fund, 
 and thus wrote to the manager ; — 
 
London Life 367 
 
 15 New Cavendish Street, Portland Place, 
 April :7, 1878. 
 
 Dear Mr. McCure, — On May 22nd, an afternoon per- 
 formance will be given at the Gaiety Theatre for the benefit 
 of the Shakespeare Memorial at Stratford-on-Avon which 
 needs but a few thousand pounds to make it complete. 
 Mr. Henry Irving has sent a subscription of ^^25, not being 
 able to act, while Mr. and Mrs. Kendal, Mr. Hermann 
 Vezin, Miss Genevieve Ward, Miss Ellen Terry, Mr. Arthur 
 Cecil, and the best artists in London have volunteered their 
 services. With the exception of a comedietta the pro- 
 gramme will be entirely Shakespearian, and I have thought 
 that the introduction of the Telephone harp in one or more 
 entr'actes, especially if the harp were played in Shakespeare's 
 house at Stratford, would add greatly to the interest of the 
 occasion. Hoping this suggestion may be approved by the 
 Telephone Company, Limited, and that I may hear from 
 you at an early date, I am 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Kate Field. 
 
 One of Kate Field's most important and agreeable 
 press associations was that with the " New York 
 Herald," beginning under the elder Bennett. The 
 cosmopolitan scope and splendid enterprise of that 
 journal captivated her imagination, and found re- 
 sponse in her own indomitable energy. Her con- 
 nection with the " Herald " had been initiated some 
 two years before this time by the following letter : 
 
 New York, Feb. 16, 1874. 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — Mr. Bennett would like to make 
 an arrangement with you to write an editorial on social and 
 other topics of a kindred nature for publication every Sun- 
 day. He would like to have you write articles also on the 
 theatres, charities, and other subjects interesting to women. 
 
368 Kate Field 
 
 Can you do it, and on what terms? Please answer at 
 your earliest convenience, and oblige 
 Your friend truly, 
 
 Thomas B. Connery. 
 
 Miss Field had accepted this flattering offer, which 
 came to her at a time of peculiar need, — a fact that 
 may not have been entirely unknown to the great 
 founder and editor of the " Herald." At all events, 
 Kate accepted the offer gratefully and filled it bril- 
 liantly. Mr. Bennett sometimes related with amuse- 
 ment that an editorial written by Kate Field would 
 be ascribed to a great financier or some keen-witted 
 lawyer. Her adaptability gave her that infinite vari- 
 ety traditionally ascribed to Cleopatra. 
 
 In view of all this pleasant relation to the " Her- 
 ald," it was with special gratification that Kate re- 
 ceived the following note of congratulation on her 
 Shakespeare-Memorial benefit : — 
 
 The New York Herald Office, London Office, 
 46 Fleet Street, May 22, 1878. 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — I must thank you for the great 
 intellectual treat of this afternoon. Your comedietta is 
 charming and all the Shakespearian part of the performance 
 was immense. To Miss Ward undoubtedly belongs the 
 honors. She is, indeed, a great artist. Croisette's death 
 scenes are no stronger. There is no actress on the English 
 stage who can compare with Miss Ward in these great parts. 
 Altogether the whole entertainment was highly interesting, 
 and I trust your energy may be rewarded by a good round 
 sum which will at once put the roof on the Memorial. 
 Yours thankfully, 
 
 Wentworth Hughes. 
 
 Sir Morell Mackenzie writes : — 
 
London Life 369 
 
 36 Bedford Place, May 22, 1878. 
 Dear Miss Field, — Permit me to congratulate you on 
 your very brilliant success, in all respects, in your very 
 brilliant Shakespeare Memorial benefit to-day. As we look 
 to results in this short life, I suppose you are to be most 
 congratulated on your great managerial talent, of which to- 
 day you gave substantial proof. I cannot, however, refrain 
 from saying that you looked lovely, sang superbly, and acted 
 naturally. I hear you warmly praised on all sides. I trust 
 that hearty public appreciation of your well-directed suc- 
 cessful effort will be considered by you as compensation 
 for your arduous and fatiguing labors. With great respect 
 
 I am, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 MoRELL Mackenzie. 
 
 From the Shakespeare Memorial Association came 
 
 this tribute : — 
 
 Shakespeare Memorial, Stratford-on-Avon, 
 June 3, 1878. 
 
 Dear Madame, — At a meeting of the Council of the 
 above Association held at the Town Hall on Friday, May 
 31st, it was resolved: — 
 
 That the special thanks of the Council are due and are 
 hereby tendered to Miss Kate Field for her valuable assist- 
 ance on the occasion of the performance at the Gaiety 
 Theatre on May 22, in aid of the Shakespeare Memorial 
 
 Fund. 
 
 I am also directed to inform you that the Council have 
 the pleasure of presenting you with a proof Impression on 
 India paper of David Garrick by Gainsborough, which is 
 sent by mail to-day. Kindly acknowledge the same and 
 return the case at your earliest convenience. I am, dear 
 
 Madam, 
 
 Yours obediently, 
 
 Charles Loundes, Secretary. 
 
 Miss Kate Field. 
 
 24 
 
370 Kate Field 
 
 In the early summer of 1878 Madame Ristori wrote 
 to Kate : — 
 
 " If you want an entire change of air come with me 
 and my daughter to St. Moritz." Miss Field re- 
 sponded to the bidding, and from this place — six 
 thousand feet above the sea — she wrote: — 
 
 " Among other things, it rains principessas, duchessas, 
 countessas, and marchesas. Man in Switzerland begins 
 with Baron. Republican as I am, I saw myself in the 
 Fremdenblatt (which is German for Visitor's List) as a 
 Countessa until I expostulated and declared that America 
 soared above titles. Women abound, apparently having 
 packed up their husbands and male kind for the summer, 
 and one soon learns on the promenade who is who. 
 Madame Ristori, Marchesa del Grillo, is always the centre 
 of a gay circle at the wells. Beauty, wit, intelligence gather 
 around the tragic queen as naturally as though she were the 
 Elizabeth, the Mary Stuart, the Marie Antoinette she so 
 marvellously represents. Her passion for the stage is un- 
 diminished, and in October she will begin a three months' 
 professional tour in Spain and Portugal. In addition to 
 her old repertoire she will produce a new one-act tragedy 
 translated by herself from the Spanish and entitled ' The 
 Gladiator of Ravenna.' The scene is laid in Rome in the 
 time of Caligula. A tragedy in one act is a novelty, and 
 certainly the story of ' The Gladiator of Ravenna ' is 
 powerful and dramatic. Perhaps in September Ristori may 
 appear for a few nights at the Italiens, in Paris, acting Lady 
 Macbeth to Salvini's Macbeth. Such a conjunction would 
 be most interesting. I am afraid, however, that it is too 
 good to be true. Both actor and actress wish it, but 
 ' there 's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.' Madame 
 Ristori's daughter is as charming as ever, and her brother 
 George has lately developed a talent for figure painting. 
 He has a studio in Paris and studies with Bonnat." 
 
London Life 371 
 
 Those summer days in the Alps with the great 
 Ristori were ahvays treasured by Kate as among her 
 richest experiences. They discussed art, poetry, the 
 drama. The intensity of temperament which char- 
 acterized Madame Ristori satisfied the somewhat ex- 
 acting, not to say imperious demands of Miss Field's 
 own nature. The swift impulses that so pre-eminently 
 dominated Kate were equally marked in Madame 
 Ristori, and constituted, indeed, a signal part of her 
 greatness. Sensitive to atmosphere and environment 
 as they both were, there was in each the capacity for 
 that sudden inspiration which has its spring in en- 
 thusiasm and imaginative power. They were akin, 
 too, in earnestness of purpose. Madame Ristori was 
 not alone the great artist, but a great woman. She 
 conceived nobly of life as well as of art, and her serious 
 and conscientious purpose appealed to Kate with a 
 force not overbalanced by the brilliancy and grace of 
 her gifts. In the comparisons of Rachel and Ristori 
 which Kate delighted to make, drawing finely critical 
 parallels between the two, she always found in Rachel 
 the greater artist; in Ristori the greater genius. The 
 former was educated in the purest school of dramatic 
 art ; the latter was far less indebted to any outer in- 
 fluence or suggestions. " Rachel fascinated and held 
 one spellbound ; Ristori inspired love," Kate would 
 say in after days, recalling this summer's intimate 
 study of the great Italian tragedienne. " Rachel 
 freezes; Ristori brings tears." Kate was fond of 
 quoting Jules Janin's words of Ristori, — that she 
 was tragedy itself, comedy itself. " She is the 
 drama," he exclaimed. Kate recognized her genius as 
 universal, and often remarked that what Shakespeare 
 was among dramatists, Ristori was among actors. 
 
372 Kate Field 
 
 There can be no question that Kate's friendship 
 with the great artist was the most sympathetic one 
 of her entire life, and the exquisite experiences of 
 that summer hngered with her when its days had 
 vanished from all save memory. Any reference to 
 that time always touched her visibly, and recalled 
 the subtile truth in the poet's lines, — 
 
 " But the rose's scent is bitterness 
 To him that loved the rose." 
 
 In September Kate proceeded to Paris, which she 
 found in the usual gleam and glow. 
 
 " Miss Field is at home in Paris," wrote a press corre- 
 spondent, " as she herself has all the sparkle of a born 
 Parisienne. She is a rare union of qualities, combining an 
 almost masculine strength of intellect with all that is sweet- 
 est in feminine nature." 
 
 The Paris Exposition of 1878 interested Miss Field, 
 and she sent from there a number of press articles 
 whose effect was almost electrical in their vividness 
 and power. Among these is an interview with Prof. 
 John D. Philbrick, superintendent of the educational 
 department of the United States exhibit, which filled 
 four columns of " The Tribune." Writing from Paris 
 under date of Sept. 16, 1878, Miss Field says: — 
 
 " The Champ de Mars is a misnomer. Peace has silenced 
 the clashing of arms, and on a mimic battlefield the French 
 Republic has welcomed the genius, industry and energy 
 of the civilized world. One would have thought that the 
 United States, eager to support the great nation which is so 
 bravely sowing the seeds of Democracy in Europe, would 
 have been first to claim space in the Exposition so recently 
 past ; but Congress, purblind to our commercial interests 
 (for the reason that there are too many lawyers and too few 
 merchants among its members), ignored France's invitation 
 until the eleventh hour, and then, appropriating the miser- 
 
London Life 373 
 
 able sum of $150,000, sent the New World half-dressed 
 into the presence of the Old. Wise men predicted failure. 
 If they proved false prophets, it is because the American 
 people are far more clever than their representatives ; 
 because, too, the President and Secretary of State appre- 
 ciated the situation and appointed a commissioner whose 
 executive ability is only second to his patriotism. Conse- 
 quently the United States — though the last to enter the 
 lists, though restricted in time, space, expenditure, and ex- 
 hibits — has taken proportionately more awards than any 
 other nation, and has opened up markets heretofore closed 
 to us." 
 
 After this general introduction she gives an inter- 
 view with Mr. Philbrick, which is fairly an educational 
 document in its exhaustive scope, and the letter closes 
 with this paragraph : — 
 
 " ' And now, Mr. Philbrick,' I said, as he paused for 
 breath, ' though you have well-nigh exhausted the universe, 
 is there nothing to deprecate in the attitude of those Amer- 
 icans who maintain that an elementary education alone is 
 needed for the welfare of the Republic ? ' ' Yes,' he 
 replied earnestly ; ' that is a vital point. I am more than 
 ever convinced that no nation can be upheld by elementary 
 education alone. Renan has well said that the United 
 States will long have to expiate the want of higher educa- 
 tion. Massachusetts leads the Republic. Why ? Because 
 she began her history with Harvard University and very 
 soon provided for high schools. There is no use to deny 
 facts. We must borrow many ideas from France as she will 
 borrow from us. We must educate or die, and we must 
 raise our educational standard. In the lower grades of 
 schools we are in advance of France and Germany. In the 
 higher grades they are superior to us.' 
 
 " Are not these words of wisdom, and should they not be 
 
374 Kate Field 
 
 taken to heart? 'The substance of culture is knowing the 
 best things,' declares Matthew Arnold. The Paris Exposi- 
 tion brought together the best things, and the representa- 
 tives of the United States Public Schools need only turn to 
 Mr. Philbrick to reap its harvest of culture." 
 
 The late winter of 1878-79 found Miss Field again 
 in London — one of the busiest of women. She was 
 writing plays; furnishing correspondence and edi- 
 torials for the London " Times " and " Truth," 
 and articles for the magazines, and, as if this were 
 not enough, she was acting, and delivering frequent 
 lectures. 
 
 A letter that she received from Dr. Schliemann is 
 as follows : — 
 
 Athens, Feb. 8, 1879. 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — Please accept my warmest thanks 
 for your very kind letter of the 28th ult. as well as for your 
 continued endeavors to procure me the U. S. consulate. 
 On the ist March I have to continue the excavations at 
 Troy and anticipate very hard times there, particularly for 
 the first month, because I have to live in a miserable wooden 
 house, which affords but little protection against the inclem- 
 encies of the weather. Nevertheless this year's excavations 
 will probably be very interesting, for, through Sir A. Layard, 
 the British Ambassador at Constantinople, I have at last 
 obtained permission to excavate the conical tombs, and, if 
 not more, I promise to find in each of them at least the key 
 to its chronology. I am always overwhelmed with work at 
 Troy ; but I shall always be charmed to hear from you ; 
 nay, your letters will be a great stimulus to me in my hard 
 work. Mrs. Schliemann joins me in kindest regards. 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Henry Schliemann. 
 
 My address is Troy near the Dardanelles. 
 
London Life 375 
 
 In October of 1879 Kate again returned to her own 
 country, with a new comedietta " Caught Napping," 
 which she had written while in London, founding it 
 on a French play; and with two new and widely 
 diverse schemes in her head : one to write a " Musi- 
 cal Monologue " and the other to found an estab- 
 lishment which subsequently materialized under the 
 name of the Co-operative Dress Association. 
 
A SIGNIFICANT PERIOD 
 
 Thou, born for noblest life, 
 
 For action's fi'eld, for victory's car. 
 
 Thou living champion of the right. 
 
 Emerson. 
 
 " Disturber " and " Dreamer," Philistines cried, when he 
 
 preached an ideal creed, 
 Till they learned that the men who have changed the world with 
 
 the world have disagreed. 
 
 Boyle O'Reilly. 
 
 I walked on, musing with myself 
 
 On life and art, and whether, after all, 
 
 A larger metaphysics might not help our physics ; a completer 
 
 poetry 
 Adjust our daily life and vulgar wants. . . . 
 
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Wliat being here below would not desire to render himself worthy of en- 
 trance into the sphere of those who live in secret by Love and Wisdom ? 
 
 SWEDENBORG. 
 
 Thy truth, then, be thy dower. — King Lear. 
 
 Never to tire ; never to grow cold ; to be patient, sympathetic, tender ; to 
 look for the budding flower and the opening heart; to hope always like God; 
 to love always, — this is duty. — Amiel. 
 
 Return to America. New York Life. The Landor Album. 
 Social Interests. The Co-operative Dress Association. 
 An, Unsuspected Romance. 
 
 THE year of 1880 found Miss Field in an interlude 
 of prosperous conditions. She had returned to New 
 York with the freedom from material anxieties insured 
 by the possession of a comfortable bank account ; she 
 was still in the youthful maturity of her life ; her 
 health was better, — health with her being always 
 more the result of mental than physical conditions, — 
 and she returned to a wide and warm circle of friends, 
 to find that her journalistic and magazine work had 
 already achieved for her a brilliant reputation. She 
 located herself in a pleasant suite of rooms in the 
 Victoria Hotel on Fifth Avenue which became a 
 centre of charming and hospitable life. Her apart- 
 ment was attractive with the choice pictures on the 
 walls, several of them gifts from the artists them- 
 selves, — Vedder, Hennessy, Coleman, Frank Millet, 
 and Oliver Lay; the fine portraits of her father and 
 
380 Kate Field 
 
 mother; a drawing of Gainsborough that was very- 
 rare and valuable ; her grand piano and a well-stocked 
 music stand, and books, and her souvenirs of travel 
 that gave individuality to the rooms. A rosewood 
 writing-desk that had been her mother's was laden 
 with a scattered mass of letters and papers, and sofa, 
 table, and chairs were not unlikely to be strewn with 
 the latest books and magazines and the morning 
 newspapers. Her favorite working-place was in her 
 old steamer chair, a wonderful, storm-beaten bamboo 
 construction which a friend once brought her from 
 Japan, and which ever after followed her in all her 
 vicissitudes of travel until, on her last journey — 
 when she set forth for the islands in the Pacific from 
 which she never returned — it was mysteriously lost. 
 This chair was as adjustable as its occupant, being 
 arranged to run the whole scale of ups and downs, 
 and the right arm was capable of being transformed 
 into a shelf on which her writing-pad and papers 
 rested. Here in luxurious ease, with her favorite 
 fountain pen, she would lie and write by the hour 
 together. 
 
 Among her treasured souvenirs were the study of 
 Landor's head, painted by Charles Caryll Coleman, 
 and an immense album that Mr. Landor had given 
 to her. " To express a liking for any of Landor's 
 pictures — provided you were a friend — was almost 
 sufficient to cause them to be taken down and pre- 
 sented to you ; hence to praise anything in his pres- 
 ence was exceedingly unsafe,^' remarked Kate one 
 day when some conversational reference had turned 
 on this album. " I remember looking over his large 
 collection that once belonged to Barker, the English 
 artist, which Landor had purchased to relieve him 
 
\-''. 
 
A Significant Period 381 
 
 of certain debts, and particularly admiring four origi- 
 nal sketches by Turner — two in oil and two in india 
 ink — that had been given to Barker by his brother 
 painter," she continued : " No sooner had I spoken 
 than Landor went in search of the scissors and, had 
 I not earnestly protested, would have cut out the 
 Turners and given them to me. I would not permit 
 him to do this, but the last day I was at his house 
 just before leaving Florence, as the hour for my 
 departure came, Mr. Landor appeared from an inner 
 room dragging this immense album after him. ' You 
 are not to get rid of me yet,' he exclaimed. ' I 
 shall see you home and bid you good-by at your 
 own door.' ' But dear Mr. Landor,' I exclaimed, 
 'what are you doing with that big book?' 'This 
 album is for you,' he replied, ' and you shall take it 
 with you.' I endeavored to dissuade him ; it seemed 
 to me impossible to accept so munificent a gift; and 
 yet I knew not how to refuse it without offending 
 him. So I begged him to compromise by leaving 
 it to me in his will. ' No, my dear,' he replied ; ' I 
 have lived long enough to know that a bird in the 
 hand is worth two in the bush ; ' and so, deaf to all 
 my entreaties, he carried it down stairs, and deposited 
 it in the carriage. ' A will is an uncanny thing, and 
 I 'd rather remember my friends out of it than in it. 
 I shall never see you again,' he added, ' and I want 
 you to think of the foolish old creature sometimes.' 
 We drove to my abiding place and the good-by 
 came. ' May God bless you ! ' the lonely old man 
 exclaimed, and in another moment the carriage was 
 out of sight, — and it was, indeed, the last time I was 
 to see him, although I continued to hear from him 
 while he lived." 
 
382 Kate Field 
 
 This album contained somewhere about a hundred 
 and forty sketches and paintings, among which are 
 very rare gems, — as heads by Raphael, flowers from 
 Leonardo da Vinci ; a landscape in oils by Salvator 
 Rosa, sixteen sketches by Turner, a number by 
 Gainsborough, and others by Claude Lorraine, Pous- 
 sin, Allston, and several artists of the early Italian 
 school. After Miss Field's death this album was 
 submitted to General Charles A. Loring, Director of 
 the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, who had a cata- 
 logue of it made which is an authoritative docu- 
 ment in art, coming from so able a connoisseur as 
 General Loring. Another interesting souvenir in 
 Miss Field's rooms was a fine portrait of Charles 
 Dickens accompanied by the following autograph 
 letter: — 
 
 Westminster Hotel, New York, Jan. 3, 1868. 
 
 My dear Miss Kate P'ield, — I entreat you to accept 
 my most cordial thanks for your charming New Year's 
 present. If you could know what pleasure it yielded me 
 you would be almost repaid even for your delicate and 
 sympathetic kindness. 
 
 But I must avow that nothing in the pretty basket of 
 flowers was quite so interesting to me as a certain bright, 
 fresh face I had seen at my readings which I am told you 
 may see when you look in the glass. 
 
 With all good wishes beheve me, 
 
 Always faithfully yours, 
 
 Charles Dickens. 
 
 At the Victoria Miss Field made a genuine home 
 for herself She gave delightful little dinners and 
 had friends and guests constantly around her. So 
 wonderfully had she retained the grace and vivacity 
 
A Significant Period 383 
 
 of early youth, in her slender, girlish figure, her dainty 
 loveliness of dress, and the enchantment that was 
 always about her as an atmosphere, that her person- 
 ality and her years of life had nothing in common. 
 Practically, both in appearance and in her glow and 
 enthusiasm she was still a young woman, and she 
 became a brilliant figure in New York hfe as she had 
 been in London and in Paris. For the first January 
 days of 1880 Miss Field seems to have made some 
 attempt of diary record, and this was the last of her 
 journal-keeping. From this time until in the spring 
 of 1896 when she went on to the unseen world, life 
 was so relentless and swift-rushing as, apparently, to 
 make diary-keeping impossible. The only perfect 
 condition for a full diary is an empty life, — periods 
 in which nothing happens, for when one has nothing 
 to record, then there is plenty of time in which to 
 record it. 
 
 On New Year's Day of 1880, Miss Field was in- 
 vited to receive with Mrs. Stone, this custom having 
 lingered in New York till well into that decade. She 
 confides to her diary that she had made about sixty 
 presents during the holidays " to those who most 
 needed them, and who can make no return, which 
 seems to me is sensible. Going to a Christmas tree 
 and seeing how pampered are the children of the 
 rich, I determined that when I had a Christmas 
 tree, it should be planted in Five Points." She 
 continues : — 
 
 "Santa Glaus was good to me. In addition to Aunt 
 Corda's gift I received a portemonnaie containing ^100, a 
 very pretty purse with nothing in it, — but as it has a silver 
 horseshoe at one end and a pig at the other, it ought to 
 bring good luck, — two volumes of poems, some charming 
 
384 Kate Field 
 
 Xmas cards (what a capital one you sent !) a lovely fichu of 
 Duchesse lace, a gold button-hook made into a charm, a 
 very artistic calendar for 1881, and a Greek necklace, 
 which I 've long been wanting." 
 
 Miss Field became much engrossed in discussing 
 the co-operative idea, which had impressed her mind 
 from its workings in England. She had just com- 
 pleted her monologue called, " E3^es and Ears in 
 London," a very clever, witty skit on current phases 
 of London life, and she began to study and practise 
 it in preparation for her appearance in public. En- 
 gaged in this on a morning in early January, there 
 came up to her the card of Mr. Albert Ives, who had 
 come over in the " Scythia" with Parnell. "At once 
 I interviewed him for 'The Herald,'" Kate records; 
 " a good stroke of journalism." Again the next 
 morning she began studying her Monologue, and 
 cards came up so thick and fast that she had to have 
 herself denied to every one ; but the evening, which 
 she always held as a gala time, was made pleasant by 
 a little supper with Mrs. Laura Curtis Bullard, at 
 which there was a pleasant group of intimate friends, 
 including Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton and Mr. 
 Hatton. On January 5 of that month Miss Field 
 records : — 
 
 " To-day Dr. Holland gave me a reception to which two 
 hundred and fifty persons were invited. I stood up and 
 shook hands with them all, and now I know how the Presi- 
 dent of the United States feels. It was a very agreeable 
 evening. Every one seemed glad to see me, and I realized 
 that I had the respect of my countrymen and country- 
 women, at least of those whose good opinion is worth hav- 
 ing. It was very kind of Dr. Holland to think of giving 
 
A Significant Period 385 
 
 me this reception. I presented Mrs. Holland with a panel 
 photograph of myself with back and profile, whereupon Dr. 
 Holland exclaimed, ' Why, that 's Kate Field's back.' At 
 
 this Mr. wrote on a card which he placed before the 
 
 photograph, ' Welcome Back.' This was very neat. I met 
 Helen Hunt's husband for the first time. He seems to 
 be a good fellow, but in no way brilliant. Brilliancy, how- 
 ever, is not necessary to happiness, whereas heart is. I 
 said to him that I 'd never be able to call his wife anything 
 but ' H. H.' ' She can never drop her H.'s,' I added. 
 Jackson smiled. H. H. has grown very stout. C'est egal, 
 
 she is clever. brought me a lovely basket of flowers 
 
 home. I wore my cardinal brocade, which, as gowns go, 
 was a success." 
 
 The journal runs on : — 
 
 January 12. To-day my contract with my agent Lom- 
 bard begins. Heaven only knows whether I '11 be success- 
 ful. No telling what the public will like. 
 
 January 13. Ralph Mecher has given me a wonderful 
 self-feeding pen, from which I shall derive great com'fort. 
 Martena Gilder has painted a scented bag for me. Very 
 sweet of both. 
 
 January 14. To-day is the anniversary of our Tele- 
 phonic stance at Osborne House, Isle of Wight. What a 
 change since then ! Within a week I 've sold seventy-five 
 shares for nearly ^8000. A few months ago I 'd have sold 
 
 them for ^800. Dined at Delmonico's with and then 
 
 saw "French Flats" at the Union Square, — a play that 
 needs all finesse of the Palais Royal to make it go. The 
 men offended me by keeping on their hats in drawing- 
 rooms, and the women by their manner of speaking. . . . 
 Through my suggestion Aunt Corda has bought a landscape 
 from Coleman for ;?8oo. It is possible to help out even 
 when one has no money. Last night I sent Mrs. Dusen- 
 
 25 
 
386 Kate Field 
 
 bury to . She found him in a bad way, but helped 
 
 him greatly. She said he cried, declaring Kate Field was 
 almost the only friend he had in the world. I pity the poor 
 man. 
 
 January 9. Rehearsed music of Monologue with Casa 
 at Chickering Hall. It went very well. I 'm nervous about 
 the talking part. . . . 
 
 In the early spring Miss Field gave her Musical 
 Monologue, which ran for several consecutive per- 
 formances in New York, opening with " one of the 
 most brilliant audiences ever assembled in this city," 
 said " The Tribune." The music, written by George 
 Grossmith of London, was sparkling and piquant, 
 and Miss Field's singing of a Spanish song, accom- 
 panying herself with castanets, was warmly applauded. 
 " The Tribune's " criticism further said : — 
 
 " Every movement was one of grace, and a firm, intel- 
 lectual character shaped and controlled her satire and droll- 
 ery, from entrance to exit. The presence of a bright mind, 
 honest convictions, sensibility, and sweetness — combined 
 with decided ability in character-acting — was felt all 
 through the performance, and these redeemed the compar- 
 ative thinness of the talk and justified the wholly unambi- 
 tious quality of the entertainment." 
 
 Bringing this entertainment to Boston, so critical 
 an observer as Mr. James T. Fields thus wrote to 
 Kate in a private letter : — 
 
 Boston, March 28, 1880. 
 
 Dear K. F., — No end of thanks should follow your kind 
 letter so full of good will. First, your delightful evening 
 I shall not soon forget, and how sorry I am that I did not 
 go in front to see Part I. as I did for Part II. I laugh 
 now this very morning as I think of the " Cheap Jack." 
 
A Significant Period 387 
 
 O, how good that is. And the unheard young woman at 
 the party, and lots of other capital things. Well, well, it 
 is all admirable, and much good will come of your success- 
 ful endeavor to win smiles from an (heretofore) smileless 
 people. With Annie's and my best regards, 
 
 Yours, James T. Fields. 
 
 Miss Field's dancing and singing in this Monologue 
 were beautiful, and her perfect grace and poetry of 
 motion, as well as her exquisitely trained voice, de- 
 lighted a critical audience. And in the Monologue 
 there were irresistible descriptions, as this of a Lon- 
 don dinner party : — 
 
 " You won't believe it, but often I 've gone in to dinner with 
 men whom I 've never seen, and who have not been in- 
 troduced to me. They 've bowed and offered me an arm, 
 and we 've sat down in complete ignorance of each other's 
 identity. Conversation under these circumstances is about 
 as cheerful as tooth-extracting. If the man be English and 
 untravelled, he is profoundly ceremonious, with a tendency 
 to depressing monosyllables. My first aim is to get a 
 glimpse of my companion's dinner-card, so that I may know 
 his name. If this be attained, and he be a public man, I 
 have an idea of his politics at least, and do not ruffle his 
 feathers by abusing his party ; but if he be Mr. Smith, I am 
 plunged in perplexity. Is it the Lord of the Admiralty, 
 and shall I congratulate him upon the prowess of the navy? 
 or is it the Mr. Smith who loathes the Lord of the Ad- 
 miralty, and thinks the country is going to perdition ? In 
 this state of uncertainty, it is safe to introduce the weather 
 as a topic of conversation ; but though there is a great deal 
 of it, it is neither inspiring nor original. You ask why 
 doesn't the man entertain me? You're American, and 
 don't understand English society. Our men try to please 
 women. Here women try to please men, and men let them. 
 
388 Kate Field 
 
 A cosmopolitan Englishman is a delightful companion. He 
 has all the virtues of his own country, and all the ease and 
 accomplishments of sunnier climes. He begins to talk with 
 or without introduction. The next day, I learn that Smith 
 is the greatest authority in the world on conchology. Why 
 didn't the host tell me so? How was I to evolve shells 
 out of my inner consciousness? Had I known Smith's 
 specialty, ■ I 'd have started him on snails, and gradually 
 crawled through the entire kingdom of Crustacea." 
 
 To those familiar vi^ith foreign life this appealed as 
 a delightful bit of Comedy; but a parody is only 
 appreciated by those who know the original. A 
 musical recital which she occasionally gave was more 
 calculated to win general favor, and in the summer 
 following, she gave this one evening at Clifton Springs, 
 New York, for the benefit of the women employees of 
 the Sanitarium, that they might be able to employ a 
 writing teacher during the winter. The recital was a 
 delightful one, including the scene and aria"Numi 
 che intesi mai " from Mercadante; a Spanish mule- 
 teer song, " Como me gusta," from Leon Vasseur; 
 and the song of the Spanish Orange girl, " La Naran- 
 jera," from Scochdopole; Sullivan's "Little Maid of 
 Arcadie," the " Salve Maria," from Mercadante, the 
 " Brindisi " from Victor Mass^'s opera of " Galathee," 
 and other numbers from the Italian, Spanish, and 
 English. Miss Field's Spanish songs called forth 
 especial enthusiasm. She was a most accomplished 
 performer of Spanish music, rendering it with excep- 
 tional spirit, and her selections all called forth re- 
 peated encores and floral demonstrations. 
 
 No interpretation of Kate Field's character would 
 approach to any semblance of the original that did 
 
A Significant Period 389 
 
 not emphasize her never-failing purpose to help peo- 
 ple. Whether it were the maids of a summer hotel 
 where she sojourned or an official in high life, made 
 little difference, and in contrast to her recital for the 
 purpose of furthering the education of hotel em- 
 ployees, is the following letter, which quite explains 
 itself, written to Colonel Hay, now the American 
 Ambassador to the Court of St. James : — 
 
 Hotel Victoria, New York, May 9, 1880. 
 
 (Which the same I am in Albany, but the above is my 
 address.) 
 
 Dear Colonel Hay, — Mr. Francis (" Troy Times ") and 
 I have just been talking over Dr. Schliemann and the propri- 
 ety of making him our Consul at Athens. Two years ago I 
 did what I could to stir up the powers but produced no effect, 
 and now Mr. Francis says he has. been pouring Schliemann 
 into your not unwilling ear. Having mentioned that I had 
 the pleasure of knowing you, Mr. Francis urged me to write 
 a good word for the learned champion. Will rt do one par- 
 ticle of good? 
 
 Why should Schliemann be Consul at Athens? Because 
 he is so proud of being an American citizen that on the 
 frontispiece of his books is printed " Citizen of the United 
 States." Because, in his way, he is a great man and would 
 reflect honor on the country. Because he would, in gratitude 
 for the compliment, bequeath America many of his treasures, 
 and would assist in stocking our Museums. 
 
 Because he would give his services gratuitously. Because 
 he has a beautiful palace in Athens and would entertain 
 finely. Because having made a large fortune as a merchant, 
 he possesses an order of intelligence that would benefit 
 American commerce. Because he has a knowledge of the 
 East, and speaks Greek. Because his wife is extremely 
 nice and is Greek. Finally, because he longs to be Consul. 
 
390 Kate Field 
 
 Are these reasons enough? It seems to me that our 
 Consular service needs a good deal of overhauling, and to 
 ignore a man like Schliemann is throwing away an excellent 
 opportunity of getting a good deal for nothing. Am I right 
 or wrong? Now don't make a pretty speech, but say ex- 
 actly what you mean and oblige, 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 Kate Field. 
 
 Miss Field had known the celebrated archaeologist 
 well, meeting him in London, and many letters of 
 his remain among her papers. Her first meeting with 
 him in London came about from the desire of their 
 mutual friend, General di Cesnola, who said to Miss 
 Field, " You ought to know this German lion." The 
 occasion came and the " German lion " and the Ameri- 
 can woman discovered a mutual interest in each other, 
 and the London magazine " Belgravia " accepted Miss 
 Field's proposition to contribute to its pages a biog- 
 raphical sketch of Dr. Schliemann and his work. He 
 was gratified by this project. " But how," he remarked 
 to Miss Field, " can I tell you the story of my work ? 
 I'm engaged every hour of the day and night. It's 
 breakfast here, and dine there, and I 've no time 
 even to sleep." 
 
 " I did arrange it," Miss Field gleefully related 
 afterwards. " When he came to tell his story he was 
 in evening dress and I received him in a ball costume. 
 It was six o'clock in the morning, and we each came 
 from one of those London entertainments which no 
 one goes to till after midnight, nor leaves till after 
 the sun ought to be shining — but isn't. Then and 
 there I took down the notes for his biography." 
 
 On this return from London, Miss Field had 
 
A Significant Period 39 1 
 
 brought with her one thing on which, however valu- 
 able she may have conceived it to be, the custom 
 house levied no duty, — the idea of founding in New 
 York a Co-operative Dress Association on the London 
 plan of co-operative stores. Again her irresistible 
 energy overbore all obstacles and difficulties, and 
 secured for her a list of subscribers that included, 
 among its trustees, Hon. R. A. McCormick, who had 
 served as the U. S. Commissioner to the Paris Expo- 
 sition of 1878 and who was then President of the 
 Mining Exchange in New York, Richard Mears, and 
 Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. 
 
 Miss Field always had magnificent ideas in carry- 
 ing out any plan and the Co-operative Dress Asso- 
 ciation was no exception. An imposing store on 
 West Twenty-third street was taken, and there were 
 a small army of employees and vast mechanism of 
 merchandise, not to speak of a library, parlors, dining- 
 room and various conveniences. Although it was, 
 perhaps, predestined to fail, it may be said here that 
 Miss Field's own purpose in organizing it comprised 
 the twofold motive of attempting to provide better 
 shopping facilities at more moderate rates, and giving 
 employment to American women. For Kate Field 
 was never so absorbed in art or literature that she 
 had not time and thought for very generous and 
 noble purposes toward humanity. 
 
 Miss Field set about creating interest in this ven- 
 ture with all her usual energy. The following note 
 from Gail Hamilton (Miss Dodge) sufficiently indi- 
 cates the proposition to which it was a reply. Writ- 
 ing from Washington in the autumn of 1880, Miss 
 Dodge said : — 
 
392 Kate Field 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — I don't believe you will need do 
 anything but announce your presence, place and hour, and 
 you will have a room full. The afternoon I received your 
 letter was Mrs. Blaine's reception day, and I talked to all 
 the ladies about it, and they were every one interested. 
 Mrs. Hayes is terra incognita to all. I shall be happy to 
 see you on every account. The Riggs House is all right. 
 I think what you should do is to put in the Washington 
 papers the hour and day when you will meet ladies in the 
 Riggs House and explain your errand. That is what I 
 should do though I am not a famous business manager 
 among those who know me. Mr. Blaine may be out of 
 town on Friday, but Mrs. Blaine and myself you may de- 
 pend on for audience. I hear your musical monologue 
 very highly spoken of. 
 
 I wish you all sorts of success, though I never expect to 
 have a well fitting dress again in this life. I never had but 
 one, but that gives me the right to the hope again. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Mary Abby Dodge. 
 
 In the autumn of 1880 Miss Field passed some 
 little time in Boston as the guest of her old friends, 
 Mr. and Mrs. A. V. S. Anthony, in their Beacon 
 Street home. Although she reached her forty- 
 second birthday on the first of this October, her 
 appearance was that of a woman much younger. 
 The abundant and beautiful auburn hair had deep- 
 ened to a rich, soft brown ; the refined, spirited face, 
 very delicate in contour, was full of animation and 
 purpose, and a Paris gown whose soft tint harmo- 
 nized with her hair, and whose mode suggested the 
 ^ligante, contributed to the impression one received 
 of an artistic personality. Miss Field was warmly 
 greeted by her old friends in Boston and as usual. 
 
A Significant Period 393 
 
 was sought by many representatives of the press. 
 Among these was Mrs. Sallie Joy White, who for a 
 quarter of a century held a distinctive and most 
 honorable place in Boston journahsm and whose 
 abihty was equalled by her sweetness of spirit and a 
 charmingly vivid and agreeable literary style. An- 
 other friend of Miss Field's, also connected with the 
 press as a special writer of humorous prose, was Miss 
 Josephine Jenkins, a niece of N. P. Willis. Miss Field 
 was deeply occupied during this visit in completing the 
 organization of the Co-operative Dress Association, 
 whose tenure of life was comprised within two years, 
 and in the spring of 1882 its failure came, involving 
 her in serious financial loss. Her establishment of 
 this organization was deeply deplored by her friends. 
 Looking backward now one sees that on her return 
 from Europe and the establishment of her pleasant 
 home in New York, in 1880, she was, however un- 
 consciously, at a parting of the ways. With her 
 little fortune in Bell telephone stocks and the very 
 considerable income she could have derived from her 
 pen — to say nothing of her appearances in lectures 
 or entertainments — she might, apparently, have 
 lived a life of ease in the midst of a congenial and 
 stimulating social atmosphere, with the gratification 
 of her tastes in art, music or literature. She might 
 have done this, it seems, as one now reviews the con- 
 junction of circumstances ; but what she did do was 
 to found a mercantile establishment, involve herself 
 in perpetual worry and strain and annoyance; to 
 find her motives misunderstood and maligned, and 
 her life in general invaded by an atmosphere foreign 
 to her true nature. Referring to all this at the time 
 in a private letter to a friend she said : " I want the 
 
394 Kate Field 
 
 C. D. A. to be impersonal. I do not want women 
 writing to me about the fit of their gowns. I believe 
 in beautiful adornment, but I do not want to talk 
 or think about it. The birds don't — even the finest 
 of them." 
 
 The failure of this establishment was the occasion 
 of a considerable financial loss to Miss Field, but it 
 proved to be a factor in her life whose result was the 
 opening of a new door leading her on to undreamed- 
 of experiences. The idea in forming this undertak- 
 ing was one that social economists recognize as the 
 true ideal in business enterprises. The failure was a 
 mere matter of detail ; but to have so early grasped 
 the equity of the co-operative idea and to have en- 
 deavored to aid in its introduction in American 
 commerce was a purpose wholly worthy of Kate 
 Field. 
 
 This work brought Miss Field into an atmosphere 
 of annoyance and discord ; still it was the path that 
 was destined to lead her on to the one most im- 
 portant and most memorable work of her life, — that 
 which had its national value in affecting Mormon 
 legislation. 
 
 Mrs. Browning has a passage in " Aurora Leigh " 
 that runs : — 
 
 "Whate'er our state, we must have made it first; 
 And though the thing displease us, ay, perhaps 
 Displease us warrantably, never doubt 
 That other states, thought possible once, and then 
 Rejected by the instinct of our lives, — 
 If then adopted, had displeased us more 
 Than this, in which the choice, the will, the love. 
 Has stamped the honour of a patent act 
 From henceforth. What we choose, may not be good; 
 But, that we choose it, proves it good for us." 
 
A Significant Period 395 
 
 Undoubtedly these lines embody a true philosophy. 
 At all events, it is not the easiest life that is best, nor 
 the life most full of personal enjoyment or privilege. 
 The best life is that which contributes most to social 
 welfare and vital progress ; which pours itself through 
 the channels of influence and gives of its noblest pow- 
 ers in the time allotted to its earthly pilgrimage. 
 
 " Get work ; 
 Be sure 'tis better than what you work to get." 
 
 This predestined endeavor was still in the unseen 
 future, and Kate little dreamed of the new departure 
 that she was so soon to enter upon. 
 
 On Dec. 22, 1880, the world was startled by the 
 death of Marian Evans Cross, she who was best 
 known by her pen name of George Eliot. Hon. 
 Whitelaw Reid immediately asked Miss Field to write 
 some Recollections of the great author for " The 
 Tribune," and the following beautiful paper, dated 
 " The Victoria, 9 P. M. Dec. 22," was written with the 
 swift spontaneity that characterized her electric pen. 
 As it offers a more intimate portrait of the great 
 novelist than has ever elsewhere been presented it is 
 here given in full. Miss Field wrote : — 
 
 To THE Editor of the Tribune : — 
 
 Sir, — George Eliot dead ! and you ask for my recollec- 
 tions of her? Memory is almost lost in regret, for she was 
 great, and good, and kind to me, but I will try to recall the 
 past. Come with me to Florence, " Flower of all cities, 
 and city of all flowers." 
 
 Here, when left as a school-girl to study singing and 
 Italian, I first met George Eliot. Being in charge of an 
 accomplished Englishwoman, who numbered among her 
 friends all that were best in literature, art and diplomacy, I 
 
396 Kate Field 
 
 enjoyed advantages far beyond my years, and found a 
 second home at Villirio Trollope, the residence of Thomas 
 Adolphus Trollope. Will you come with me there and 
 meet George Eliot? It is a Sunday evening, and she is 
 expected with her husband. 
 
 Ah, this Villino Trollope is quaintly fascinating with its 
 marble pillars, its grim men in armor, starting like sentinels 
 from the walls, and its curiosities greeting you at every step. 
 The antiquary revels in its majolica, its old bridal chests 
 and carved furniture, its beautiful terra-cotta of the Virgin 
 and Child by Orgagna, its hundred oggetti of the Cinque 
 Cento. The bibliopole grows silently ecstatic as he sinks 
 quietly into a mediaeval chair and feasts his eyes on a model 
 library, bubbling over with five thousand rare books, many 
 wonderfully illuminated and enriched by costly engravings. 
 To those who prefer an earnest talk with the host and 
 hostess on politics, art, religion, or the last new book, there 
 is the cozy study where Puss and Bran, the honest dog, lie 
 side by side on Christian terms, and where the daughter of 
 the house will sing you the Tuscan canti popolari like a 
 young nightingale in voice, but with more than youthful 
 expression. 
 
 Here is Anthony Trollope, and it is no ordinary pleasure 
 to enjoy simultaneously the philosophic reasoning of 
 Thomas Trollope — looking half Socrates and half Galileo 
 — whom Mrs. Browning called " Aristides the Just," and 
 the almost boyish enthusiasm and impulsive argumentation 
 of Anthony Trollope, who is an admirable specimen of a 
 frank and loyal Englishman. 
 
 It is late in spring. Soft winds kiss the budding foliage 
 and warm it into bloom ; the beautiful terrace of Villino 
 Trollope is transformed into a reception-room. Opening 
 upon a garden, with its lofty pillars, its tessellated marble 
 floor, its walls inlaid with terra-cotta, bas-reliefs, inscriptions, 
 and coats of arms, with here and there a niche devoted to 
 
A Significant Period 397 
 
 some antique Madonna, the terrace has all the charm of a 
 campo santo without the chill of the grave upon it ; or were 
 a few cowled monks to walk with folded arms along its 
 space, one might fancy it the cloister of a monastery. On 
 this warm spring night there is laughter and the buzz of 
 many tongues. No lights but the stars are burning, and 
 men and women, talking in almost every civilized tongue, 
 are sipping iced lemonade, — one of the specialties of Vil- 
 lino Trollope. 
 
 Dair Ongaro, the poet, is reciting verses to my chaperone, 
 and I sit beside her wondering whether George Eliot will 
 deign to notice me. There she stands quietly in the moon- 
 light, speaking earnestly to Adolphus Trollope, while Lewes 
 hovers near, calling her attention to the exquisite beauty of 
 the lights and shades made by the iiQoon. One by one the 
 guests* are presented to the author of " Adam Bede," who 
 receives all with shrinking diffidence; more and more I 
 wonder whether Mr. Trollope will remember the American 
 girl in the corner, — a nobody. There I sit growing very 
 dejected, when the host offers his arm to George Eliot, and 
 they walk toward a Madonna which is above my head. 
 They stop to admire the work ; the host discovers me, I am 
 introduced, and my heart beats quickly as George Eliot 
 takes my hand and seats herself beside me, expressing great 
 interest in all young girls who aspire to lead broader lives 
 than those carved out by society. I gaze at her with 
 delight and see a woman of medium stature, of large frame 
 and fair Saxon coloring. In heaviness of jaw and height of 
 cheek-bone she greatly resembles a German, nor are her 
 features unlike those of Wordsworth, whom Hazlitt swore 
 looked just like a horse. We are all said to resemble some 
 animal, and George Eliot's animal, like Wordsworth's, is the 
 horse. Her eyes are pale blue, her mouth'' large and sensi- 
 tive, her teeth large and white. The expression of her face 
 is gentle, while her manner is singularly timid ; yet, as if by 
 
398 Kate Field 
 
 force of will, as if she had been told something about me by 
 good Mr. Trollope, she puts this timidity aside, relates her 
 own literary experience, and suggests advice. 
 
 True genius is ever allied to humility, and in seeing 
 George Eliot do the work of a good Samaritan so unobtru- 
 sively I learn to respect the woman as much as I had before 
 admired the writer. " For years," she says, " I wrote re- 
 views because I knew too little of humanity, and I doubt 
 whether I should ever have ventured upon a novel had not 
 Mr. Lewes urged me to it. To him I submitted my 
 ' Scenes of Clerical Life,' short stories of the worth of 
 which I was in doubt. Mr. Lewes insisted upon their 
 publication, and their success put an end to my reviews. 
 All my manuscripts pass through his hands before they 
 are submitted to the public. He is my critic and my 
 inspiration." 
 
 To think that George Eliot should be telling all this to a 
 school-girl ! Why, I can scarcely believe my own ears ; yet 
 I venture to ask whether she enjoys writing ; whether it is 
 easy work? "No," she rephes ; "I am miserable when 
 writing, but I am still more miserable when not writing." 
 After more kindly words, George Eliot rises ; her husband 
 comes forward and claims acquaintance with " the little 
 republican." I find myself absolutely laughing and talking 
 with these two wonderful creatures, and then they bid me 
 good-night. That is all I see of them, their fortnight's stay 
 in Florence being over. 
 
 In the maturity of her wisdom this gifted woman startled 
 the world with " Scenes of Clerical Life," " Adam Bede," 
 " Mill on the Floss," and " Silas Marner," making an era in 
 English fiction, and raising herself above rivalry. Expe- 
 rience was much to her. Her men are men, her women are 
 women, and long did English readers rack their brains to 
 discover the sex of ' George Eliot.' Mrs. Lewes need not 
 necessarily have encountered the characters she so vividly 
 
A Significant Period 399 
 
 portrayed. Genius looks upon Nature, and then creates. 
 The pot-house scene in " Silas Marner " is as perfect as a 
 Dutch painting, yet the author never entered a pot-house. 
 Her strong physique enabled her in earlier days to brush 
 against the world, and in thus brushing she gathered up the 
 dust, fine and coarse, out of which humanity is made. It is 
 a powerful argument in the "Woman Question," that — 
 without going to France for George Sand — " Adam Bede " 
 and the wonderfully unique conception of "Paul FerroU" 
 should be women's work; and real men cannot know 
 women by knowing men, and a discriminating public will 
 soon admit, if it has not done so already, that women are 
 quite as capable of drawing male portraits as men are of 
 drawing female. Half a century ago a woman maintained 
 that genius has no sex ; a truth just dawning on the 
 world. 
 
 I know not whether George Eliot visited Florence con 
 intenzione, yet it almost seems as though " Romola " were 
 the product of that fortnight's sojourn. It could scarcely 
 have been written by one whose eyes were unfamiliar with 
 the tone of Florentine localities. As a novel, " Romola " is 
 never likely to be popular, however extensively read ; but, 
 viewed as a sketch of Savonarola and his times, it is most 
 interesting and valuable. The deep research and knowl- 
 edge of mediaeval life and manners displayed are cause of 
 wonderment to erudite Florentines who have lived to learn 
 from a foreigner. The couleur locale is marvellous. Noth- 
 ing can be more delightfully real, for example, than the 
 scenes which transpire in Nello's barber-shop. The dram- 
 atis persona are not English men and women in fancy 
 dress, but true Tuscans, who express themselves after the 
 manner of natives. It would be difficult to find a greater 
 contrast than exists between "Romola" and George Ehot's 
 previous novels. They have little in common but genius ; 
 and genius, I begin to think, not only has no sex, but no 
 
400 Kate Field 
 
 nationality. " Romola " has peopled the streets of Flor- 
 ence still more densely to memory. 
 
 The next time I saw George Eliot was in her own house, 
 the Priory, 21 North Bank, Regent's Park; much as I 
 wanted to renew the acquaintance, I stayed away from the 
 Priory until invited, as I knew George Eliot shrank from 
 strangers, and I had no reason to suppose that she would 
 remember an American girl in Florence. Fortunately for 
 me I was not forgotten ; and when one foggy Sunday I 
 entered her pleasant London drawing-room, both she and 
 Mr. Lewes warmly welcomed me. 
 
 Sunday was their reception day. From 3 to 7 the clever- 
 est men and women in London felt honored in being 
 received by the quiet woman who sat by the fire with her 
 back to the window and talked earnestly in almost a whis- 
 per, while Lewes pervaded the atmosphere, speaking first 
 with one and then with another, always interesting and fre- 
 quently brilliant, the ugliest of men, who made you forget 
 his pocked face and shaggy red hair in about fifteen 
 minutes. Often he came to my rooms and delighted me 
 with his conversation and advice, but she never came. She 
 visited no one ; all visited her, — all save music and art. 
 At every "private view," at every fine classical concert, 
 George Eliot was sure to be present, dressed unobtrusively 
 and seemingly oblivious of every one about her. She loved 
 music ardently, and was herself a pianist of no mean order. 
 Only once did I succeed in luring her away from the 
 Priory, and that was to see the Telephone, about which she 
 was very curious. Yes, she would come with Mr. Lewes, 
 provided no one else was present. So one afternoon 
 George Eliot visited the office of Bell's Telephone in the 
 city and for an hour tested its capacity. " It is very won- 
 derful, very useful," she said. " What marvellous inven- 
 tions you Americans have ! " It was the last time I ever 
 saw her or him. Lewes died suddenly not long after ; and 
 
A Significant Period 401 
 
 now she has passed away, too soon for her friends, but not 
 too soon for her fame. 
 
 I have several letters from her, many more from him. 
 His are more brilliant, her temperament not so quickly 
 lending itself to the epistolary touch and go. Unfortunately 
 these letters are packed away. 
 
 A noble intellect, a big heart, — this was the real George 
 Eliot. Let those who never knew the woman pause before 
 they cast a stone. Kate Field. 
 
 Among the many tributes of admiration which this 
 paper called forth is the following letter from the 
 poet and the well-known educator, Miss Anna C. 
 Brackett : — 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — " The Tribune " brings me to-day 
 your letter about Mrs. Lewes, for which will you let me 
 thank you, though I am a stranger to you. 
 
 You speak brave, true words of her, as any true woman 
 knows. I never knew her except through her books, but 
 how any woman who had known her in her writings even 
 could dare to say one word against her, I can never under- 
 stand. As to her marriage with Mr. Cross, I had faith 
 enough in her to say, " I* do not understand it, but . if 
 George Eliot did it, it is right." If the world were only big 
 enough to judge circumstances by people, and not people 
 by circumstances ! If they only were ! She had " a noble 
 intellect and a big heart,'' as you say. And she could well 
 afford to have smaller and narrower natures criticise and 
 carp at her life, — which they judge by their own petty 
 standards. 
 
 If she had not been so much of a woman, those criticisms 
 would not have touched her. Thank you again. 
 
 Truly, Anna C. 'BRACKErr. 
 
 I have met you at Dr. Holland's, but you will not re- 
 member me. A. C. B. 
 
 26 
 
402 Kate Field 
 
 In the latter assertion Miss Brackett was quite mis- 
 taken, for Miss Field not only remembered her then, 
 but always, with an ardent appreciation of her lofty 
 personality. 
 
 Not long after this. Miss Field had the pleasure of 
 writing to her old friend, Hon. Whitelaw Reid, person- 
 ally, on a subject to which his reply offers the clue. 
 
 271 Lexington Ave., S. E. Corner 36th St., 
 April II, 1881. 
 
 Dear Miss Kate, — I thank you very heartily for your 
 congratulations. If you knew Miss Mills you could then 
 begin to form some adequate idea of how fortunate I am, 
 and how appropriate therefore the congratulations are. 
 
 I 'm sorry to hear of your illness, but trust the ocean 
 may prove this time, as it has for you so often before, a 
 kindly and successful nurse. With best wishes I am. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 WmTELAW Reto. 
 
 To Miss Kate Field, Hotel Victoria. 
 
 In the Academy exhibition in New York in the 
 spring of 1881, there was a portrait of Miss Field 
 painted by Mr. Frank D. Millet. The picture in full 
 length represents her seated on a sofa, piled with 
 yellow cushions, in a black evening gown decollete 
 and sleeveless, the grace and style revealing that it 
 was a Worth creation. The picture was conspicu- 
 ously hung and at the time attracted much attention, 
 the pose being a beautiful one, and the painting of 
 the hands and the arms especially revealed their 
 classic beauty. 
 
 A letter from Wilkie Collins during this year is as 
 follows : — 
 
A Significant Period 403 
 
 90 Gloucester Place, Portman Square, W. 
 January, i8Si. 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — If you are in the U. S. A. and if 
 you ever see Frank Leslie's " Illustrated Newspaper," you 
 will find a serial story in it which may suggest indulgence 
 to an overworked man. If you know nothing of " Heart 
 and Science," I go down on both my knees and beg your 
 pardon. I am in sober earnest, so weary after finishing 
 my story that a sinking of the soul (and body) comes over 
 me at the sight of a pen. As to writing letters while I am 
 at work, "that way madness lies." Is there any fatigue 
 in this weary world which is equal to the fatigue that comes 
 of daily working of the brains for hours together ? George 
 Sand thought all other fatigues unimportant by compar- 
 ison — and I agree with George S. 
 
 Let me thank you for " Fechter." The illustrations 
 (excepting the photographed head of him in " Hamlet ") 
 are so utterly unlike, that / should not have known what 
 man they were meant for; and his old doctor here (Carr 
 Beard), to whom I showed the book, agreed with me. 
 This is my only objection. I think your part of the volume 
 eminently readable — and done in an excellent spirit. Here 
 and there, poor dear F., or somebody else, has misled you 
 about his importance in Paris, but that is no fault of 
 yours. And I repeat my congratulations and my thanks. 
 
 " Boz " rhymes (in sound) to " was." 
 
 Oh, good land ! referring to your letter I find no address. 
 " Hotel Victoria," — that, I swear, is all. Oh, woman, 
 lovely woman 1 What is a man to do, who remembers 
 Victoria Hotels in his own country, in your country, at 
 Naples, at Rome, and on the continent generally? Will 
 Osgood forward? Here goes at Osgood. Farewell. 
 Yours ever, 
 
 WiLKiE Collins. 
 
404 Kate Field 
 
 A series of dramatic biographies under the title of 
 the " American Actor Series," edited by Mr. Lau- 
 rence Hutton, was in process of publication by the 
 Osgood House at this time, and Miss Field was 
 asked to write for it the volume on Fechter. Her 
 criticism of his playing, ten years before, made the 
 same deep impression as had her criticism on Ris- 
 tori, and that she was the predestined biographer 
 of Fechter was a foregone conclusion. At the time 
 that Kate had been writing in the daily press of his 
 stage appearances, her criticism charmed Mrs. Anne 
 Lynch Botta, one of the finest of literary judges, and 
 she wrote to Miss Field the following note under date 
 of November 27 : — 
 
 Dear K. F., — Thanks for the paper containing your 
 admirable critique on Fechter's " Claude." The conclud- 
 ing paragraph I have read the day before in the " Evening 
 Mail," read it through and went in ecstasy over it before I 
 discovered the initials at the end. Every woman ought to 
 love you for it. I am glad you are coming. Do stay with 
 us. Believe me always, 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 Anne C. L. Botta. 
 
 In the preparation of Fechter's Life, Kate wrote 
 to her old friend, Wilkie Collins, asking if he had 
 any interesting letters from the French actor, to 
 which Mr. Collins replied : — 
 
 go Gloucester Place, Portman Square, W. 
 London, Dec. 14, 1880. 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — I am suffering from my native 
 winter climate, and I am writing a serial story (with printers 
 and publishers waiting here, there, and everywhere, New 
 York included, for their weekly instalments) . Add to this, 
 
A Significant Period 405 
 
 correspondence and " taking care of one's health," and you 
 will, I hope, excuse me for not having more speedily an- 
 swered your letter. 
 
 If you are not in a hurry — a very serious " if," in these 
 days — I will gladly search my archives for such few letters 
 of poor dear Fechter as autograph-collectors have left to 
 me. And if there is anything I can tell you besides, you 
 shall be welcome to some of the least melancholy recollec- 
 tions associated with my old friend. But if the book must 
 be published immediately, I fear I must wait for a new 
 edition. The strain of this last story is heavy on me. But 
 I hope to be free from my " Black Robe " in six weeks' 
 time. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 WiLKiE Collins. 
 
 I have received a letter from Mr. Osgood on the same 
 subject. I write to acknowledge it, and I venture to refer 
 them to you for the things called " particulars." 
 
 W. C. 
 
 A later letter from Mr. Collins is as follows : — 
 
 go Gloucester Place, Portman Square, W. 
 July 26, 1882. 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — Miss Hogarth took me to see the 
 pictures to which you refer, some months since. They 
 were then in Bond Street. The proprietor referred to an 
 old friend of Dickens, who declared it to be a portrait of 
 him. But Miss Hogarth's opinion was unreservedly ad- 
 verse. She positively refused to recognize the likeness. 
 As for me, I had never even seen Dickens at the time 
 when the picture was painted ; and I represented the igno- 
 rant public. This is all I know of the matter ; and it is, of 
 course, for your personal information only. 
 
 Is your " Fechter " published ? And how can I get the 
 book? Shall I write to Mr. Osgood? I ought to have 
 
4o6 Kate Field 
 
 asked these questions when you kindly called here. But I 
 never do what I ought. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 WiLKiE Collins. 
 
 Still again Mr. Collins writes : — 
 
 90 Gloucester Place, Portman Square, W. 
 London, Jan. 18, 1S82. 
 
 Dear Mr. Osgood, — By mail of Saturday next — the 
 2ist — I shall at last send you my " Recollections of Fech- 
 ter." My health is mainly to blame for this long delay. 
 But besides this, the subject is beset with difficulties and 
 requires careful handling with a margin of time to do it in. 
 
 If I am too late, I can only say I am sorry, and ask 
 you to let me have the manuscripts back again. 
 
 If the book is still to be written, then my recollections 
 are at Miss Kate Field's service — on one condition : viz. 
 that they are printed and published without alteration of 
 any sort, exactly as I have written them. My motive for 
 making this stipulation, which I am sure I may trust to 
 your care to see strictly carried out, is expressed in the 
 manuscript I may add, remembering what has been fool- 
 ishly and falsely said of Fechter in the United States (and 
 repeated, I am sorry to find, by Miss Field in one of her 
 letters to me), that I will not appear before my American 
 readers, unless I tell the truth honestly, on my own 
 responsibility, as one of the very few Englishmen now liv- 
 ing, who knew Fechter intimately in every aspect of his 
 character. 
 
 Therefore, please accept this letter as authority for at 
 once returning my manuscript to me, if you have any rea- 
 son to suppose that the stipulation which I attach to it is 
 not likely to be literally observed. 
 
 Please tell Miss Kate Field, with my kind remembrances, 
 that the questions about Fechter which she puts to me in 
 her letters — in so far as they are not treated of in the 
 
A Significant Period 407 
 
 " Recollections " — are questions which I am quite un- 
 able to answer. His two children's names are " Marie " 
 and " Paul," — " Marie " being the eldest. Beyond this, I 
 know nothing of his domestic affairs. I am not even 
 acquainted with the address of his widow. As for his 
 book of " Othello," I do not possess it — and I could not 
 lend it for public quotations if I did. His "Othello " and 
 his "book" were among the mistakes of his career, poor 
 dear fellow. For the sake of his memory, I ask Miss Field 
 to pass over them. 
 
 Nothing! more occurs to me just now, and my letter is 
 too long already. 
 
 I contend with this dreadful damp winter (in England) 
 more successfully than I had hoped. If I could only 
 breathe your dry air in Boston (dry by comparison with our 
 island air on the worst day you have), I should do very 
 well. Believe me, dear Mr. Osgood, 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 WiLKiE Collins. 
 
 Please let me hear if the manuscript is safely received. 
 If it is set up in type, proof in duplicate might perhaps 
 help me to make some additions. W. C. 
 
 Miss Field has left to literature an admirable bi- 
 ography in this book, made especially valuable by 
 her critical consideration of Fechter's Hamlet, which 
 she described as " not the introspective student of 
 tradition, but a man of the world in the noblest sense." 
 She asserts that Fechter's Hamlet was never at any 
 time really mad, and she supported this conception 
 of the character with Lowell's criticism : " If you 
 deprive Hamlet of reason, there is no truly tragic 
 motive left. He would be a fit subject for Bedlam, 
 but not for the stage. We might have pathology 
 enough, but no pathos." Miss Field thoroughly 
 
4oS Kate Field 
 
 sympathized in Fechter's conception of Hamlet, and 
 she approved of certain scenic innovations, as that of 
 picturing the time of the churchyard scene as a bril- 
 liant sunset, " making a fine contrast between the joy 
 of nature and the grief of humanity.'' A great num- 
 ber of the most cultivated people in London accepted 
 Fechter's innovation in the time-honored methods of 
 presenting the melancholy Dane, with no slight en- 
 thusiasm ; but in America there were many of the 
 most critical judges who were ready to exclaim, C'est 
 magnifique, mats ce tt'est pas la guerre. 
 
 Miss Field relates that on one occasion when 
 Fechter was playing in London Louis Napoleon was 
 present, and after the performance sought the actor, 
 and this conversation ensued : — ■ 
 
 " Upon bidding Fechter good-by, Napoleon seemed much 
 touched at the thought of his own continued exile from 
 France, and said, ' The next time we meet will be in the 
 Tuileries.' 
 
 " ' That is somewhat doubtful,' answered Fechter, ' for 
 I really do not intend to be king.' 
 
 " ' No,' replied the man of destiny, ' but I intend to be 
 Emperor ! ' 
 
 " To smile was impossible. Napoleon's tone and manner 
 were such as to convince Fechter that an oracle had spoken, 
 and when the prince became President of the Republic, 
 Fechter knew how the drama would end. Napoleon was 
 right. The next time they met was in the Tuileries, and 
 when Fechter acted for him at Fontainebleau the Emperor 
 took off his watch and chain and begged his acceptance 
 of them." 
 
 On receiving from Miss Field a copy of her 
 " Fechter," Mr. Lawrence Barrett wrote under date 
 of Sept. 3, 1883: — 
 
A Significant Period 409 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — It is a feast for the eyes to gaze 
 upon your zigzag chirography and read this valuable book, 
 and to know that you are enjoying a good share of happi- 
 ness. ... My season opens with a gold mine. Mary Ander- 
 son has made a hit in London, and you will rejoice thereby. 
 It was genuine, and she sends a long cablegram full of glee. 
 God bless her, and you, and every good soul alive ! 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 Lawrence Barrett. 
 
 Completing this book, Miss Field turned again to 
 her Co-operative Dress Association enterprise, and 
 in the providing of seats for women employees she 
 was ahead of the time, as the following letter which 
 she wrote to " The Tribune " under date of Feb. 16, 
 1882, attests: — 
 
 Editor of "The Tribune," — Sir, it required no law or 
 knowledge of the existence of legislation in behalf of shop- 
 girls to inspire a feeling of humanity in the directors of the 
 Co-operative Dress Association Limited. As soon as their 
 building was secured, a resolution was passed making seats 
 for female employees obligatory. To-day there is a patent 
 self-acting seat for every other girl on the street floor, and 
 on the other floors the women can sit whenever unemployed. 
 You are cordially invited to inspect the Association from 
 top to bottom. The legislator at Albany who declared 
 that no store in New York had complied with the law was 
 indebted to his imagination for his facts, so far as concerns 
 an Association that aims at co-operation in its best sense. 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Kate Field, President C. £>. A. 
 
 There were not wanting those who commented ad- 
 versely upon Miss Field's unwisdom — as they termed 
 it — of founding this establishment, when its failure 
 
4IO Kate Field 
 
 proved it to have been a disastrous venture, in which 
 she herself was the most unfortunate loser. But see- 
 ing it all in its larger relation to the entire purpose 
 through her life, it is more than an open question as 
 to whether there is anything to regret. Our failures 
 are not unfrequently quite as important as are our 
 successes. 
 
 " Measure not the work 
 Until the day's out and the labor done ; 
 Then bring your gauges." 
 
 Miss Field had given somewhat of a social flavor 
 to the C. D. A., in frequently entertaining her friends 
 there and using its large parlors for evening recep- 
 tions. One pleasant lunch that she gave is still re- 
 membered, the guests being Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple ; 
 Miss Maud Howe, a beauty and a belle, as well as a 
 charming woman of letters, who is now Mrs. John 
 Elliott of Rome; Mr. Frank D. Millet, the clever 
 artist ; and Mr. Samuel Ward, the wit and bon vivant ; 
 and the hour was sparkling in the wit and repartee 
 of the brilliant hostess and distinguished guests. 
 Miss Field was the President of this Association, and 
 passed a part of every day in the establishment. 
 The " President's room " was fitted up in great beauty, 
 and Kate was not without an enjoyment and pride in 
 the establishment. 
 
 In May of 1882 Miss Field sailed again for Lon- 
 don, where she remained until the end of July, when 
 she went to Mont Dore in France, returning in the 
 autumn to Paris. From London she wrote to a 
 friend : — 
 
 " I 've dived into art. My soul hungers and thirsts for 
 music ■ — • for pictures — for all the things I 've had no taste 
 
A Significant Period 4 1 1 
 
 of since I 've been in trade ! Music I had in the form of 
 Wagner's ' Meistersingers,' and of Patti. The ' Meisler- 
 singers ' I heard twice, and the more I heard the more I 
 liked it. It is Wagner's sole attempt at comic opera, and 
 certainly it is strange comic opera, but there are splendid 
 things in it. . Wagner is all wrong in writing for the voice, 
 but admitting this fact, which will prevent any singer like 
 Patti from touching his music, there is that within which 
 commands admiration. I don't believe I shall ever go mad 
 over Wagner, but I can't call him a humbug. He is a 
 great intellect. 
 
 " I heard Patti in a new French opera, ' La Velleda,' 
 and in 'Traviata.' She worked like a Trojan to make 
 ' Velleda ' go, but with all the flowers and applause, it was 
 but a succes d'estime. Lenepreu, the composer, proved 
 cleverness, but no originality or inspiration. He had 
 worked tremendously, but he had nothing new to tell the 
 world. After a second night ' La Velleda ' disappeared. 
 After hearing and seeing Patti in her pet role of ' Traviata ' 
 I return to my original conclusion that she is a delightful 
 singer, without any real dramatic ability. She does not 
 once touch. And she leaves out ' Gran Dio morir si 
 giovane.' No dramatic artist would throw away the pas- 
 sionate gem of the opera. Albani sings beautifully, and is 
 an acknowledged favorite with the Queen. Her high notes 
 are singularly pure, while Lucca has a fine middle register, 
 but no high notes. There 's a new tenor, a Pole, Mier- 
 winsky, who pleases me greatly. 
 
 " In acting I 've seen Irving's production of ' Romeo and 
 Juliet ' sumptuously put upon the stage, and as Juliet Ellen 
 Terry is very picturesque. To-night I 'm to see Modjeska 
 in Odette. The Kendals in ' The Squire ' are very good, 
 but the play will not bear transplanting. Edwin Booth has 
 appeared as Richelieu, and has had good notices. 
 
 . . . " I 'm quite miserable over the paintings I can't 
 
412 Kate Field 
 
 buy. There 's a fine portrait of Dickens in 1842 for sale for 
 $750. It would fetch double that in America. There's a 
 charming Gainsborough for ^150, and another for ^125, — 
 a Sir Peter Lely for I300. I go and look at these things, 
 and ache at not being able to buy them. 
 
 " Mont Dor6 is a charming place when the sun shines. 
 When it rains, as it has been doing for four days, it is hor- 
 rid. There is no perfect climate this side of heaven, 
 I fancy. The views and excursions are lovely. We have 
 rooms on the third story opening upon a balcony, from 
 which we command the Valley of the Dordogne and the 
 splendid amphitheatre of mountains to the south of it. 
 The sun, when it shines at all, beats upon us all day, and 
 physical existence becomes a pleasure. 
 
 " Paris is always interesting, until one has heard all the 
 music, and seen all the plays and pictures, and bought all 
 the new books. Then I want to cross over to England, 
 where people think in an Anglo-Saxon way. . . . 
 
 " I saw Bernhardt in ' Camille ' last Wednesday night. 
 She is an admirable artist, who acts from the head down. 
 Still, I prefer Modjeska's conception and rendering of the 
 part, as truer to Dumas's novel." 
 
 Returning to New York in October, Miss Field 
 passed the winter in that city. She was in a tide of 
 social life ; she was writing various magazine papers, 
 and bearing, through all, a burden of anxiety which 
 had culminated just before Christmas in the failure 
 of the Co-operative Dress Association. 
 
 The reader may recall the very striking and unique 
 letter written by Miss Field to one who must be 
 nameless in these pages, under the date of May 31, 
 1868, which appears in a preceding chapter. It is 
 
A Significant Period 413 
 
 curious to see how, in any moment of need, the 
 friend to whom this letter was addressed seemed 
 destined to reappear in her Hfe and, as has before 
 been noted, his death occurred within the same year 
 as that of her own. As the years had vanished be- 
 tween 1868 and 1880, he seemed to have come to feel 
 something of that intensity expressed in the poet's 
 lines, — 
 
 " There will no man do for your sake, I think, 
 
 What I would have done for the least word said : 
 I had wrung life dry for your lips to drink ; 
 Broken it up for your daily bread." 
 
 His was a nature that failed in power of self-ex- 
 pression, but something of this sentiment was appar- 
 ent in him, and the experiences between Kate and 
 himself had left their impress on both lives since that 
 far-away May-day when she had written him the 
 letter included in this volume; still something in 
 time, place, or circumstance prevented the feeling 
 between them from ever finding its inflorescence in the 
 love that alone would have satisfied Kate Field. 
 
 She seemed to distrust the possibilities of married 
 happiness, although on two occasions he had sought 
 to win her to be his wife. Her letter of that May-day 
 had aroused in him his better self. Never had he 
 been so worthy of her as on her final refusal. The 
 silent tragedy in life that may result from the lack of 
 correspondence in date of a strong feeling between 
 two persons has never found more keen expression 
 than in the lines : — 
 
 " A year divides us, love, from love : 
 
 Though you love now, though I loved then, 
 The gulf is straight but deep enough. 
 Who shall recross ? who among men 
 Shall cross again ? 
 
414 Kate Field 
 
 " Do the stars answer ? in the night 
 
 Have ye found comfort ? or by day 
 Have ye seen gods ? What hope, what light, 
 Falls from the farthest starriest way 
 On you that pray ? " 
 
 As has previously been remarked, it was often a 
 subject of wonder that a woman so attractive as Kate 
 Field, and one who always frankly preferred the 
 companionship of men to women, did not marry; 
 but there seemed to be some instinct warning her 
 back from the final step. Opportunities for marriage, 
 brilliant in every worldly sense, came to her, but she 
 refused to consider them. Twice in her life came 
 love, and why, in both these instances, she shrank 
 from marriage, even she herself could not have told. 
 " I am a strange being," she once said in a moment 
 of intimate confidence with her present biographer: 
 " I am a mystery to myself, doing things that the 
 conventional world would perhaps call unwomanly, 
 and yet so very a woman that I ought never to have 
 been born. You little dreamed that I cared more 
 
 for than for any one in the world. ... I need 
 
 a clear head to accomplish the work I must do in this 
 world, and nothing so unfits a sensitive nature for 
 mental exertion as emotional intensities." 
 
 Perhaps these self-revealing words from a woman 
 usually so reticent that even her nearest friends 
 gained little clue from herself to her inner thought, 
 may offer a clue to the labyrinthine mazes of her 
 life. It was in Florence, in the early summer of 
 1 86 1, that she first met and loved this man, whose 
 death occurred, like her own, in 1896, and looking 
 backward to that May among the Florentine lilies 
 they both might have said : — 
 
A Significant Period 415 
 
 " The year 's a little older grown : 
 And fair white boughs by green ways blown 
 In these new days no more are known. 
 (Oh, who can bring the May again ?) 
 
 " And we are wiser grown, we two ; 
 Our story 's told ; each word was true. 
 (Oh, who can bring the May again.') 
 Was it not sweeter e'er we knew ? 
 Yet who can bring the May again ? " 
 
 That long-lost Maytime may have awaited them in 
 some fairer clime. 
 Emerson tells us : — 
 
 " The world rolls round ; mistrust it not. 
 Befalls again what once befell ; 
 All things return." 
 
 Surely we must believe that these rudimentary expe- 
 riences find their full fruition in the rich and infinite 
 future. 
 
 Aside, however, from all this undercurrent of the 
 romance in her life which was unsuspected by her 
 friends ; into the actual day and daylight world came 
 the lover again in the guise of the following letter 
 at the time when her business enterprise, the Co- 
 operative Dress Association, failed and she stood 
 alone in loss and perplexity. Under the date of 
 Dec. 27, 1882, he wrote: — 
 
 " I forbear to call upon you at a time when you are, per- 
 haps, over-burdened by well-meaning, but inconsiderate 
 friends. But I write to remind you that I claim to be your 
 friend. . . . 
 
 " Should the closing of C. D. A. embarrass you financially, 
 I beg that you will allow me to do all that a sincere and 
 devoted friend ought to. If you will permit me to be of 
 
41 6 Kate Field 
 
 service to you, as occasion demands, I shall take it as a 
 great favor. . . . 
 
 ♦' I hope you will not think me officious and presumptu- 
 ous, but believe me to be earnestly and loyally, 
 
 A greater energy of nature on the part of the 
 writer of this letter would have swept her distrust 
 away; as it was, that which she most asked of him 
 was precisely that which he did not possess. 
 
 The larger interests and the higher individual de- 
 velopment that are the gifts of modern life to women 
 have effaced the type described in the lines, — 
 
 " Love is of man's life a thing apart ; 
 'T is woman's whole existence." 
 
 Still, by a paradox, it is only the woman who can 
 live her life bravely, even happily, without love, who 
 most appreciates and reverences its holiness and 
 its power for bestowing every gift and grace. Miss 
 Field held this faith in all its purity and perfection. 
 She insisted always on marriage and motherhood 
 as the only complete fulfilment of the ideal of 
 womanly life. Yet, for herself, the path of destiny 
 led otherwhere than to " the sweet, safe corner by 
 the household fire." Kate Field was born under a 
 star that danced. 
 
INTO UNKNOWN WAYS 
 
 The Summers of Hesperides 
 Are long. 
 
 Emily Dickinson. 
 
 I doubt whether a mortal can arrive at a greater degree of 
 perfection than steadily to do good, and, for that very reason, 
 patiently and meekly to suffer evil. — A Letter to John Wesley 
 from His Father. 
 
 There is no end to the great ends of life. If one is living in 
 the resolute pursuit of them, he may first welcome, and then 
 rejoice to leave behind, the several means which in succession 
 come to offer him their help toward the attainment of those 
 ends, as the traveller whose heart is set upon some distant city 
 rejoices when he comes to, and then rejoices when he gets be- 
 yond, each field and river which must be crossed before he 
 enters the far-off city gates. — Phillips Brooks. 
 
 Ah, happy if a sun or star 
 
 Could chain the wheel of Fortune's car, 
 
 And give to hold an even state, 
 
 Neither dejected nor elate. 
 
 In vain : the stars are glowing wheels, 
 
 Giddy with motion Nature reels. 
 
 Sun, moon, man, undulate and stream. 
 
 The mountains flow, the solids seem, 
 
 Change acts, reacts; back, forward hurled, 
 
 And pause were palsy to the world. 
 
 Emerson. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Great is he, 
 Who uses his greatness for all. 
 His name shall stand perpetually 
 
 As a name to applaud and cherish. 
 
 Mrs. Browning. 
 
 Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass. 
 Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron 
 Can be retentive to the strength of spirit. 
 
 Julius Ccssar. 
 
 Summer Days in Colorado. The Mormon Problem. Alaska 
 AND THE Golden Gate. Picturesque Journeys. Comments 
 ON Affairs. Important Lectures. Fame and Friends. 
 
 THE late summer of 1883 found Miss Field pre- 
 paring for a journey to the far West. She 
 passed a few days with her uncle and aunt, the San- 
 fords, in Newport, at their beautiful villa on the old 
 Point, where her own room — a blue room, with a 
 Venetian window looking out on the water, beyond 
 which the sunsets shone gloriously — again made her 
 happy to be in it and sad to leave. In the early 
 summer of 1883, however, she fared forth on a 
 journey westward toward issues of which she little 
 dreamed. With Ulysses she might have said : — 
 
 "It may be that the gulfs will wash us down ; 
 It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles." 
 
 It will be remembered that, amid all the varied 
 charms and interests of her foreign life, passed in the 
 most cultivated and refined social circles of Europe, 
 Kate Field never forgot that she was an American, 
 
420 , Kate Field 
 
 and patriotism grew to be a passion with her. She 
 had been a student of English and American pohtics, 
 and her revelations of the ponderous machinery of 
 the British Parliament, in that series of strong and 
 brilliant press letters, collected into the little volume 
 called " Hap-Hazard," was as fine and impressive in 
 its way as was her dramatic criticism or literary 
 papers. All this, perhaps, had paved the way for her 
 to enter into a close and comprehensive study of the 
 social and the political crimes of Utah. The serious 
 attention which she gave to this problem stamps her 
 lectures on this theme as among the most potent 
 political influences of that time. Miss Field's dis- 
 cussion of Mormonism was one of those events which 
 seem predetermined by the law of the unconscious, 
 and which seem to choose the individual rather than 
 to be chosen by him. In this summer of 1883, as we 
 have seen, Miss Field determined to hitch her wagon 
 to a star and journey westward. She lingered for a 
 month in Denver, where she received distinguished 
 social attention, and where, by special request, she 
 gave her lecture on an " Evening with Dickens " and 
 her " Musical Monologue." Of this Dickens lecture 
 a Denver journal said : — 
 
 " Charles Dickens was the novelist of humanity, and Kate 
 Field is, to-day, his most sympathetic and intelligent inter- 
 preter. Those who were so fortunate as to attend her read- 
 ing last evening enjoyed an intellectual pleasure not soon 
 forgotten. They saw a slender, graceful woman, dressed in 
 creamy white, with soft laces falling about her ; with low, 
 broad brow, and earnest, sympathetic eyes, under a cloud 
 of soft brown hair. With a rich and finely modulated voice 
 of remarkable power of expression, she held her audience 
 for two hours spellbound by the magic of her genius." 
 
Into Unknown Ways 421 
 
 In Colorado Miss Field enjoyed an unique and 
 picturesque holiday. Picnics and excursions were 
 gotten up in her honor ; special trains were run ; she 
 rode on horseback with gay parties of friends twenty- 
 five miles a day ; she joined friends from New York 
 who were camping out on " The Needles," and she 
 made a visit to the San Juan silver-mining district. 
 Among other diversions she had the honor of naming 
 a new watering-place, located on " The Divide," an 
 hour by rail from Denver, to which, in honor of 
 General Palmer, who had practically " made " that 
 region, she gave the name of Palmero, the Spanish 
 for Palmer. 
 
 On first reaching Denver, under date of July 22, 
 1883, Kate thus writes to a friend to whom for fifteen 
 years — from 1880 until the lack of mail facilities from 
 Honolulu, the year before her death, interrupted the 
 correspondence — she wrote almost daily. This friend 
 was then living quietly in one place ; Kate was con- 
 tinually flying about ; but her address for every day, 
 as approximately as it was possible to calculate, was 
 always with the friend whose devotion to the brilliant 
 and noble woman was fairly in the nature of an occu- 
 pation. All Kate's letters that are quoted in this 
 Record are from this correspondence exclusively 
 unless otherwise specified. From Denver Miss Field 
 wrote : — 
 
 " Here I am, my dear, feeling very like the traditional 
 cat in a strange garret, yet very much interested, and new 
 things turn up so fast that my head feels as though it would 
 burst. A sister of Julia Dean, the famous actress, has just 
 left me, having called on the strength of knowing my dear 
 mother, and the result is that I 'm going to visit her ranch. 
 
422 Kate Field 
 
 " People appear here in the most amazing manner, and 
 one makes friends inside of five minutes. My journey west 
 was uneventful and perfectly comfortable, thanks to Pullman 
 cars. I stopped over night at Chicago and went with Mr. 
 Pullman to his town, which is unique and wonderful and 
 such a monument as does honor to its founder. It is worth 
 a journey west to see ' Pullman ' alone. ... I had not been 
 two hours in town before a committee of ladies engaged me 
 to give my monologue on the 31st. Eugene Field called 
 at once and has been as kind and attentive as though he 
 were a real cousin — kinder. He is very clever. Senator 
 and Mrs. Hill came to see me last evening. . . . Denver is 
 wonderful for so young a town, and the distant mountains 
 are fine." . . . 
 
 Of the grave of Helen Hunt Jackson she wrote: 
 
 . . . " I 've been to Colorado Springs, lectured there and 
 visited H. H.'s grave. It is on Cheyenne Mountain, 2,500 
 feet above the town, reached by a mountain road good enough 
 for carriage and two horses. The situation of the grave is 
 beautiful, romantic, and appropriate. I walked several rods 
 in a foot of snow to get to the grave, but only a few steps 
 beyond I found bare rock, where I sat in the sun for an 
 hour, and thinking of the unique woman and generous heart 
 that had passed many a day in the same place, I gazed upon 
 the beautiful plain that stretches to the Missouri River. 
 No monument at present marks H.H.'s grave, and it would 
 require a sympathetic genius to create a fitting design. 
 The usual white marble atrocity would desecrate nature and 
 insult the dead. ... I liked her very much for her great 
 cleverness and vivacity. It is impossible for me to give an 
 analysis of her character as she appeared to me. ... As I 
 care for Shakespeare and a few old fellows supremely, per- 
 haps you can understand why the poetry of H. H. does not 
 appeal to me. . . . You will, of course, use your judg- 
 
Into Unknown Ways 423 
 
 ment in publishing scraps that I send. . . . But for your- 
 self, pray don't think it womanly to be too easily disgusted. 
 Whatever a man can read, a woman can read. Whatever a 
 man can write about, a woman can write about." 
 
 Again she says : — 
 
 " The farther West I go, the more interested I become in 
 the people." 
 
 The death of Miss Field's uncle, Mr. Sanford, 
 occurred suddenly about this time, and to her Aunt 
 Corda she wrote : — 
 
 " God bless you and make you brave ! I wish I were with 
 you. It seems such an awful distance away when sorrow 
 comes. 
 
 " Poor Uncle Milton ! Yet why should I write ' poor ' ? 
 No. He leaves his tired body, and begins life over again 
 with truer insight and higher aspirations, as we all must. 
 You think of this, I know, dearest aunt, and you accept 
 temporary separation with resignation to a will wiser than 
 we can conceive." 
 
 No adequate idea of the breadth and fulness of her 
 life could be given without some representation of her 
 relations with the daily press. They were singularly 
 happy ones ; and even when some adverse comment 
 was made on her, she took the matter with good grace 
 and evidently believed, with the Rev. Dr. Crothers, 
 that "When a man comes to appreciate his own 
 blunders, he has found an unexhaustible supply of 
 innocent enjoyment." There was no feature of her 
 own life which she held as more responsible than her 
 journalistic work, and she once remarked to a friend : 
 " I honor the journalist because he does work that is 
 needed from day to day. He is the contemporary 
 
424 Kate Field 
 
 historian, and quietly submits to oblivion ; in fact, 
 takes it for granted and puts on no airs." 
 
 She was herself always a close student of the daily 
 press ; and if one stops to think of it, there is a distinc- 
 tive difference between the woman who reads the 
 newspapers and the woman who does not. In Miss 
 Field's apartments neither belles-lettres nor bric-a- 
 brac ever crowded out the semi-daily papers. They 
 had place in her rooms and space in her life ; and as 
 a natural consequence, she brought to bear on the 
 current questions of the hour a just and thorough 
 acquaintance with them. A vigorous daily journal 
 crowds out an immense amount of nonsense and 
 frippery in a woman's life, if once one happens to 
 reflect upon it. 
 
 During 1 883-84 Miss Field wrote a series of letters 
 on the political situation in Utah to the Boston 
 " Herald," which dealt in a masterly way with the prob- 
 lems of the hour. In one of these under date of 
 Feb. 4, 1884, she writes this pungent sketch of 
 her view of Utah : — 
 
 "When I arrived here, Mormons told me that Governor 
 Murray was a fool, a rascal, and a dude. What an extraordi- 
 nary combination ! Murray had only one thing to recom- 
 mend him, and that was good looks ; his vanity, however, 
 was so great on account of his beauty as to render him in- 
 sufferable. I had never met the Governor, and marvelled 
 exceedingly that the President should have sent a trinity of 
 folly, rascality, and dudeism to so critical a community as 
 the Latter Day Saints. To be sure, the Gentiles told me a 
 diametrically opposite story. They said Murray was every 
 inch a gentleman ; that he was sound in head and heart, 
 and that he was as true to his trust as the needle to the 
 pole. ' He has been here four years,' said one clever 
 
Into Unknown Ways 425 
 
 man, ' and, hated as he is by the Mormons, anxious as they 
 have been to pick holes in his record, tliey have not suc- 
 ceeded in finding a flaw.' Where lay the truth ? 
 
 " ' Externally,' said a high priest, ' Governor Murray is 
 an accomplished, agreeable, amiable gentleman, but inter- 
 nally he is a black-hearted scoundrel.' 
 
 " ' ^^'hy is he a scoundrel ? ' I asked, expecting at last to 
 place my finger on something tangible. 
 
 " ' Well, Governor Murray would head a mob against our 
 people.' 
 
 " ' How do you know he would head a mob against your 
 people or any other? Soldiers have special detestation of 
 mobs. I don't beheve any officer of the United States 
 army, volunteer or regular, would head a mob against any- 
 body.' 
 
 " 'I believe Murray would,' replied the high priest. 
 
 " ' If you want me to share your detestation of Governor 
 Murray, you must produce stronger evidence than suppo- 
 sition,' I continued. ' What else have you against him? ' 
 
 " ' At a Fourth of July celebration here, Governor Murray 
 declared that there was wood enough in the mountains to 
 make coffins for all traitors, and he meant us ! ' 
 
 " ' How do you know he meant you ? Are you traitors ? ' 
 
 " Here the conversation ceased, for I did not want to tell 
 my friend that he had put the cap upon his own head, and, 
 if it fitted, so much the worse for him. I repeat this dia- 
 logue because it is a fair illustration of the reason brought 
 to bear by Mormon judgment on Governor Murray or any 
 other faithful official. 
 
 " Governor Murray is neither a fool nor a rascal. Moreover, 
 he is not a dude. It is my good forturie to know him, and 
 I have rarely met a man with a more generous heart. I do 
 not think he could betray a trust if he tried. It is not in his 
 nature. His head has been wise enough to grasp the situation 
 
426 Kate Field 
 
 here, and to advocate the only poUcy compatible with com- 
 mon sense. He cannot be bought by flattery or gold. 
 Thanks to his parents, he has a fine, manly physique, which 
 fact seems to be a crime in Mormon eyes. This is some- 
 thing Governor Murray cannot help. Therefore he should 
 be forgiven. But he can help being well dressed ; hence he 
 is a dude. I don't wonder that the ' saints ' are shocked 
 at good tailoring. Utah has made its own clothes by divine 
 revelation for so many years as to look upon uninspired 
 broadcloth as the work of the evil one. 
 
 " If Eli H. Murray is not reappointed Governor of Utah 
 Territory, a great injustice will be done to a faithful servant, 
 as well as to the cause of liberty." 
 
 That we are led by a way we know not, is a truth 
 that was emphasized by the unconscious way in which 
 Miss Field came to be interested in the Mormon prob- 
 lem. In a letter to the Boston " Herald," under date 
 of January, 1884, she tells the story: — 
 
 " I know of nothing that would do Bostonians so much 
 good as a prolonged trip across this continent, giving them- 
 selves sufficient time to tarry at different points and study 
 the people. For myself — about half a Bostonian — I be- 
 came so ashamed of sailing east year after year, that last 
 summer I made up my mind to hitch my wagon to the star 
 of empire and learn as much of my own country as I knew 
 of Europe. I started from New York in July, expecting to 
 be absent three months, and in that period obtain an intel- 
 ligent idea of the far West. After passing two months and 
 a half in wonderful Colorado, and only seeing a fraction of 
 the Centennial State, I began to realize that in two years I 
 might, with dihgence, get a tolerable idea of this republic 
 west of the Mississippi. Cold weather setting in, and the 
 fall of snow rendering mountain travelling in Colorado 
 neither safe nor agreeable, I came to Utah over the won- 
 
Into Unknown Ways 427 
 
 derful Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, intending to pass a 
 week prior to visiting New Mexico and Arizona. My week 
 expired on the 2 2d day of October, and still 1 linger among 
 the ' saints.' I am regarded as more or less demented 
 by Eastern friends. If becoming interested in a most ex- 
 traordinary anomaly to such an extent as to desire to study 
 it and to be able to form an intelligent opinion therein is 
 being demented, then I am mad indeed, for I 've not yet 
 got to the bottom of the Utah problem, and if I lived here 
 years, there would still be much to learn. Despite this last 
 discouraging fact, I have improved my opportunities and 
 am able to paragraph what has come under my own obser- 
 vation or been acquired by absorption of Mormon and 
 Gentile literature. If the commissioners sent here by Con- 
 gress to investigate the Mormon question, at an annual 
 expense of forty thousand dollars per annum, had studied 
 this question as earnestly as I have, they never would have 
 told the country that polygamy is dying out. One or two 
 members of that commission know better, and sooner or 
 later they must tell the truth or stultify their own souls." 
 
 This extract reveals how deeply the anomaly of 
 Mormon life had at once impressed her. Miss Field 
 was too keen and cultivated an observer not to see 
 beneath the surface of this phase of living a problem 
 whose roots struck deep into national prosperity and 
 safety. The distinguished essayist and critic, Mr. 
 Edwin P. Whipple, said of her study of Mor- 
 monism : — 
 
 " She undertook a perfectly original method of arriving at 
 the truth, by intimate conversations with Mormon husbands 
 and wives, as well as with the most intelligent of the ' Gen- 
 tiles.' She discarded from her mind pre-conceptions and 
 all prejudices which discolor and distort objects which 
 
428 Kate Field 
 
 should be rigidly investigated, and looked at the mass of 
 facts before her in what Bacon calls ' dry light.' Corne- 
 lius Vanderbilt, the elder, was accustomed to account for 
 the failures and ruin of the brilliant young brokers who 
 tried to corner the stocks in which he had an interest, by 
 declaring that ' these dashing young fellars did n't see things 
 as they be.' Miss Field saw things in Utah ' as they be.' 
 She collected facts of personal observation, analyzed and 
 generalized them, and, by degrees, her sight became in- 
 sight and the passage from insight to foresight is rapid. 
 After thorough investigation, her insight enabled her to pene- 
 trate into the secret of that ' mystery of iniquity ' which 
 Mormonism really is ; while her foresight showed her what 
 would be the inevitable result of the growth and diffusion of 
 such a horrible creed." 
 
 The winter lapsed into spring, and still she lingered 
 in Salt Lake City. She relinquished all pleasure for 
 the real work of studying deeply the anomaly of a 
 polygamous hierarchy thriving in the heart of the 
 republic. Every facility was accorded to her by 
 United States officials, military officers, leading Gen- 
 tiles and apostates. Prominent " Latter Day Saints" 
 offered her marked courtesy. She pursued this re- 
 search unremittingly for eight months and when, at 
 last, she left Salt Lake City, the leading Gentile paper, 
 " The Tribune," devoted a leading editorial to Miss 
 Field's marvellously thorough study of Mormon condi- 
 tions, and, on her departure, said : — 
 
 " Miss Field is probably the best posted person, outside 
 the high Mormon church officials and others who have 
 been in the church, on this institution, in the world, and 
 its effects upon men, women, and governments. With a 
 fixedness of purpose which nothing could swerve, and with 
 
Into Unknown Ways 429 
 
 an energy which neither storm, mud, snow, cold looks, the 
 persuasions or even the loss of friends, could for a moment 
 dampen, she has held on her course. In the tabernacle, 
 in the ward meeting-house, in the homes of high Mormons, 
 and, when these were closed to her, in the homes of the 
 poor, she has worked upon the theme, while every scrap of 
 history which offered to give any light upon the Mormon 
 organization she has devoured. Mormonism has been to 
 her like a fever. It has run its course, and now she is going 
 away. If she proposes to lecture, she ought to be able to 
 prepare a better lecture on Mormonism than she has ever 
 yet delivered ; if a book is in process of incubation, it ought 
 to be of more value than any former book on this subject. 
 Lecture or book will be intense enough to satisfy all de- 
 mands. ' The Tribune ' gives the world notice in advance 
 that Miss Field has a most intimate knowledge of the 
 Mormon kingdom." 
 
 Returning to the East, she stopped on the vi^ay in 
 Missouri and at Nauvoo, Illinois, looking up all the 
 old camping-grounds of Mormonism, and meeting 
 and interviewing people who had been connected 
 with it, including two sons of Joseph Smith. Miss 
 Field opened her course of lectures on Mormonism in 
 Bq^ton before a brilliant and distinguished audience, 
 including the Governor and other officials of state, 
 Harvard University professors, and men and women 
 eminent in art, literature, and society. She dealt with 
 the political crimes of the Mormons, arguing that the 
 great wrong was not, as many had believed, polygamy, 
 but treason ! 
 
 There is no exaggeration in saying that Miss Field 
 aroused the entire country with these lectures. Her 
 statements offered a revelation of conditions little 
 known. Rarely has such fire and eloquence and 
 
430 Kate Field 
 
 splendor of oratory, combined with the mental disci- 
 pHne of trained thought, scholarly acquirements, and 
 finished elegance, been known in the annals of the 
 lyceum. These lectures yielded her returns in fame 
 and friends which were of a priceless nature. The 
 importance of her theme, the wide and accurate 
 knowledge, and the dignity with which she invested 
 it impressed the statesmen and the leading thinkers 
 of the day. The celebrated Boston divine, Rev. Dr. 
 S. K. Lothrop, said : " I am very glad Kate Field has 
 taken up a theme so worthy of the vituperative in- 
 dignation of every intelligent and patriotic and Chris- 
 tian woman and man in this enlightened American 
 Republic." 
 
 Miss Field received, indeed, many letters of com- 
 pliment after her initial lecture of the course, and 
 among them was this from the Rev. Dr. Phillips 
 Brooks, afterward the Bishop of Massachusetts: 
 
 Boston, 232 Clarendon Street, Nov. 24, 1884. 
 My dear Miss Field, — I listened with interest to your 
 lecture last evening, and I thank you for giving me the 
 privilege of hearing it. As to the possibility of interesting 
 the people of Boston in any active measures with reference 
 to the matter in which you are so deeply interested, I can 
 form no judgment. I have had no means of testing public 
 sentiment upon the subject, and your own judgment would 
 be worth more than mine. 
 
 I need not say that I should be heartily rejoiced if the true 
 method of dealing with the problem could be discovered 
 and vigorously pursued. I am, 
 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 Phillips Brooks. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Bartol wrote : — 
 
Into Unknown Ways 431 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — I appreciate and bless you for your 
 enthusiasm. Do not think people indifferent or thoughtless 
 on the matter that so stirs you, because they are too much 
 preoccupied to attend to lectures or unable for any reason 
 to go to them. I judge your discourses made their mark 
 on the mountain of wrong and prejudice to be removed 
 thereby, as the work must go on. I have no new expedient 
 to suggest, but am cordially yours, also very busy. 
 
 C. A. Bartol. 
 
 Mr. T. B. Aldrich also wrote to Miss Field : — 
 
 "The Atlantic Monthly," 
 
 Boston, Nov. 22, 1884. 
 
 Dear Miss Kate Field, — My wife bids me send you 
 her thanks for those passes, which she has used with the 
 unalloyed joy that attaches itself to free tickets in a world 
 where one doesn't usually get anything for nothing. I 
 suppose that my humble applause didn't reach you the 
 other evening so as to be distinguishable, though I made 
 quite a spectacle of myself two or three times. 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 T. B. Aldrich. 
 
 Miss Field's methods of investigation while in Salt 
 Lake City had been those of the closest personal 
 observation and conversational intercourse with all 
 classes of people. The method itself is something of 
 a commentary on her original genius. Her press 
 letters on political topics at this time were not 
 invariably diplomatic in the policy they advocated, 
 but they were penetrating and fearless. 
 
 In the summer of 1885 she filled many lecture en- 
 gagements before assemblies and institutes in the 
 East, and a picture of her during a little interlude, 
 when she was the guest of Mrs. ^fimile Marqu6ze, in 
 
432 Kate Field 
 
 her seaside cottage on the North shore of Massachu- 
 setts, recurs to memory. At the corner of the piazza 
 a hammock was swung, and in it, reclining against 
 cushions, was the pretty figure of Kate Field, while 
 all the blue Atlantic rolling in formed the back- 
 ground. It was out on the extreme point of Marble- 
 head Neck, — the very jumping-ofif place of the North 
 Shore, — and .the white wings of yachts and sail-boats 
 flitted over the blue waters, lying sparkling and shim- 
 mering under a golden flood of sunshine. The 
 " Point " here curves about far out at sea, making a 
 small bay, on which the quaint old town of Marble- 
 head fronts, and across which the dwellers on the 
 "Point" can row to the mainland, or instead they 
 may drive over the long neck of land that connects 
 Marblehead Point with the main shore. Here on this 
 extreme end of land out at sea are dozens of cottages, 
 where Bostonians install themselves, and here, too, 
 is the Eastern Yacht Club House, gay with banners 
 and pennons streaming to the wind. At the outer- 
 most edge of this point, with piazzas and balconies 
 overhanging the sea, which breaks against great 
 ledges of rocks, Mrs. Marqudze had a summer cot- 
 tage, in which the law of hospitality was that each 
 guest should enjoy himself after the devices of his 
 own heart. The hostess flitted about her pretty 
 rooms here and there; Miss Field swung idly in the 
 hammock, and threw in conversational interludes of 
 glancing wit and brilliancy, altogether Kate Fieldian, 
 and therefore indescribable. " The idea," said some 
 one at last, " of a newspaper correspondent who is 
 tolerated by the press of the country being up here 
 with the great authority on Mormonism, and not in- 
 terviewing her. Tell me, O my lady of the ham- 
 
Into Unknown Ways 433 
 
 mock," continued the youth, " whether there is any 
 danger of a Mormon uprising on their anniversary 
 (July 24), their Pioneer Day." 
 
 Miss Field gazed serenely out at sea. Her thoughts 
 were far away, sailing the Vesuvian Bay or some other 
 locality. But she was recalled to terra finna : " About 
 the Mormons?" " The Mormons are serfs," she re- 
 plied with her characteristic incisive energy. " They 
 have been taught from the beginning to obey coun- 
 sel. I cannot believe that they would act individually 
 on their own responsibility. Whatever is done will be 
 by order of the Church. Unless the Presidency have 
 gone mad, there will be no demonstration against the 
 Gentiles. John Taylor and George Q. Cannon are 
 not fools ; they know perfectly well that in any phy- 
 sical contest they must eventually be worsted, and I 
 cannot think they wish to bring about a collision. 
 There may be a Guiteau among the saints, but I very 
 much doubt it. They are under too good Church 
 discipline to think for themselves." 
 
 Miss Field ardently enjoyed the North Shore, 
 where long drives through piny woods with sud- 
 den glimpses of the sea, — where the waves breaking 
 against rocky cliffs and a sea of silver lying at night 
 beneath a moonlit sky, all charmed her anew. One 
 day her hostess drove her to Manchester-by-the-Sea, 
 where James T. Fields had his country seat, still 
 occupied by Mrs. Fields, and of which the story is 
 told that Mr. Fields, writing a letter to Dr. Holmes, 
 dated his note Manchester-by-the-Sea: to which the 
 witty Autocrat, determined not to be outdone, replied, 
 dating " Beverly-farms-near-the-depot." 
 
 " I almost fancy I hear the Beverly Bells, — Lucy 
 Larcom's bells," remarked Kate, as she swung idly in 
 
 28 
 
434 Kate Field 
 
 the hammock one summer day; and half dreamily, 
 in her vibrant, musical voice, she repeated : — 
 
 " Beverly Bells ! 
 Ring to the tide as it ebbs and swells. 
 This was the anguish a moment tells, 
 The passionate sorrow death quickly knells ; 
 But the pain that is caused by a lifelong woe 
 Is left for the desolate heart to know, 
 Whose tides with the dull years come and go." 
 
 During the later years of this decade (1880-90) 
 Miss Field visited the Yellowstone Park and the 
 Yosemite; passed one winter at Coronado Beach, 
 which she pronounced the most enchanting of places ; 
 passed some time at San Rafael and in San Francisco, 
 and made two trips to Alaska, on one of which she 
 gave the first lecture ever delivered in that country. 
 
 Miss Field's pungent humor was always appre- 
 ciated by the press of her country, and she was the 
 heroine of an alarming number of racy paragraphs. 
 Eugene Field, the poet and wit, who, though they 
 Were not related, always called her " Cousin Kathe- 
 rine " set afloat one of his characteristic paragraphs 
 as follows, during one of Miss Field's California 
 sojourns : — 
 
 " Miss Kate Field is so delighted with California that 
 she has decided to spend the evening of her life there. 
 Accordingly she has purchased an orange grove near Los 
 Angeles and is erecting a splendid villa overlooking the 
 sea. This beautiful estate she calls Castellata in honor of 
 her friend, the Duque de la Castellata, of Madrid. It was 
 the duke's eldest son who was killed at a bull-fight some 
 years ago, and it has been hinted that Miss Field had more 
 than a passing regard for the unhappy lad." 
 
Into Unknown Ways 435 
 
 Pasting this on the top of a letter to Kate, he wrote 
 as follows : — 
 
 Dear Cousin Katherine, — It is not probable that Mr. 
 Stone's retirement from the "Daily News" will interfere 
 with my arrangements here ; at the same time, however, 
 I am mighty sorry to be deprived of the companionship 
 of so good a man and so true a friend. Your manuscript 
 is in the hands of the new editor and proprietor, Mr. Vic- 
 tor F. Lawson, and it will have prompt attention. I see by 
 " Yenowine's Milwaukee News " that you are to remain in 
 California ; is this true ? It would be indelicate, perhaps, 
 to ask if the story about the unhappy young heir of de la 
 Castellata be equally true. I have heard a good deal 
 about that bull-fight, but you never spoke of it to me. My 
 folks are all well, and they wish to be remembered cordially 
 to you. God bless you, dear cousin, and fill you with 
 pleasant thoughts of him who now and hereunto subscribes 
 himself yours affectionately, 
 
 Eugene Field. 
 
 Chicago, May 27, 188S. 
 
 On one of Miss Field's departures from the West 
 to the Atlantic seacoast again, Mr. Stedman rivalled 
 Thomas Hood's celebration of his " fair Inez " by 
 writing to Kate on a post-card : — 
 
 O, saw ye not fair Katie ? 
 
 She 's going to the East, 
 To take from out our loaf of cake, 
 
 Its most ethereal yeast ! 
 
 E. C. S. 
 
 All this infinite jest followed her as a part of her 
 own atmosphere, and made itself a recognized element 
 of her genial, brilliant life. At one time she heard 
 a lecture from a state oiiiicial in the West who argued 
 for phonetic spelling. Miss Field replied, as Max 
 
436 Kate Field 
 
 Muller or Archbishop Trench might have done, in 
 defence of language. " Why,'' she said, as her face 
 glowed with enthusiasm, " pure language is the one 
 imperishable bequest of the centuries. It is the 
 crystallization of all human thought and emotion. 
 It is history, poetry, art, and science, all rolled into one, 
 and if you hack and mutilate it as you suggest, you 
 leave us only parrot calls." 
 
 A Christmas brought her this note from her old 
 
 friend Laurence Hutton. 
 
 Christmas Morning. 
 
 Perhaps Miss Field will care to possess this bit of English 
 Mistletoe, the real thing, cut in Warwickshire not more than 
 two weeks ago. " A rare old plant " and seasonable, sugges- 
 tive of " God bless us every one ; " and it may help to 
 "keep his memory green." 
 
 Respectfully, Laurence Hlitton. 
 
 Mrs. Laurence Hutton, in playful allusion to some 
 splendid elk-heads which Miss Field had sent to Mr. 
 Hutton from Colorado, and which he had attached 
 to the wall of his house, thus wrote to Kate in as- 
 sumed formality : — 
 
 Miss Kate Field. 
 
 Dear Madam, — Mr. Laurence Hutton requests me 
 to inform you that he regrets to state that the firm of 
 Elk-Head hangers, whom he has employed for the last 
 twenty years to hang his Elk-Heads, have attached yours 
 so firmly to the wall that it cannot be taken down without 
 removing the side of the house. Mr. Hutton has made 
 provision in his will that you and your heirs shall be per- 
 mitted every Sunday afternoon, forever, between the hours 
 of three and five, to look at the head, on the payment of 
 a small fee to the servant who opens the door. 
 
 I remain, dear madam, yours with consideration, 
 
 Betta. 
 
Into Unknown Ways 437 
 
 In reply to a question regarding the Yosemite she 
 said : — 
 
 " What do I think of the Yosemite Valley ? I want to 
 quote Emerson and then stop : ' It is the only scenery that 
 comes up to its brag.' To attempt to describe it is absurd 
 — as attempting to describe the Niagara Falls. There 
 are persons who undertake this big contract, just as there 
 are artists who paint the falls. With what results? They 
 only display their own littleness. Fanny Kemble had more 
 sense. When she was a girl and visited Niagara for the 
 first time, she kept a diary which was afterward published. 
 Instead of indulging in bathos, as the average young person 
 would have done, she exclaims, ' O God ! ' That tells the 
 story. In the presence of Yosemite Valley I feel like mak- 
 ing the same brief and eloquent criticism." 
 
 Of a summer she passed some weeks lecturing in 
 Michigan she said : — 
 
 " I started for Alaska, and at the rate of speed with 
 which I was approaching it, I probably would have reached 
 it near the close of the twentieth century. I have been 
 figuring on the subject somewhat, and the seeming fly- 
 tracks you see here represent the tangents I pursued while 
 traversing that State. I have delivered my Mormon lec- 
 ture at Paw Paw, Weeping Water, Lone Mound, — 
 in short, I have elucidated the problem of polygamy at 
 every little cross-roads in Michigan and in Iowa. Last 
 week I began to realize that if I had kept on fly-tracking 
 the intervening territory, I would have reached Alaska in 
 1970 — that is to say, eighty-four years hence. Much as 
 I wish to see Alaska, I really have not the time to devote 
 to this method of accomplishing a realization of that wish ; 
 so I have abandoned the Slayton lecture route to our 
 iceberg possessions." 
 
438 Kate Field 
 
 This lecture tour had involved the utmost hardships 
 in night travel, — in being called at two or three 
 o'clock in the morning to take some local train which 
 was perhaps two hours late, and would have left her 
 stranded in some rural station with a long delay for 
 another train; but she bore it with seeming good 
 humor and always extracted what Mr. Stedman well 
 called the Kate Fieldian view. Her intense earnest- 
 ness, her impassioned power, were relieved by this 
 humorous vein in her character. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that every Boston woman 
 who respects herself regards her genius as the guid- 
 ing star foreordained of heaven in all emergencies, 
 there is still one forum in the modern Athens on 
 which the foot of woman has never stood, — that of 
 the Lowell Institute. It was reserved for Kate Field 
 to initiate the storming of this impregnable fort of 
 exclusive masculine wisdom, — an attack of which 
 the following correspondence suggests the rise, de- 
 cline, and fall. 
 
 March 19, 1885. 
 To Augustus Lowell, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Going West for pleasure I was arrested 
 against my will by the presence in Utah of a hierarchy in 
 the heart of a republic. After months of study I have re- 
 turned and am doing all in my power to enlighten public 
 opinion in order that Congress may be forced to consider 
 it and take speedy action. The lecture which I am giving 
 to the general public in no way covers the whole ground of 
 Mormonism. I am preparing half a dozen lectures with a 
 view to delivering them to thinking associations, etc., early 
 next autumo- As Lowell Institute is in the habit of giving 
 courses of lectures, I now write to inquire whether such a 
 subject as mine — of vital national importance — commends 
 itself to your consideration. It would be easy for me to 
 
Into Unknown Ways 439 
 
 obtain letters of introduction to you from Mr. James Rus- 
 sell Lowell and other prominent Americans, but I prefer to 
 let this matter rest entirely upon its merits. Whether I 
 know what I talk about can be told you by Judge Field of 
 the Supreme Court, Washington, D. C, Judge Arthur Mc- 
 Arthur of the District Court, Washington, D. C, Senator 
 Dawes of Massachusetts, Governor Murray of Utah, and 
 many another, if you care for references. As I leave town 
 in a few days, an early answer vs'ill oblige. 
 
 Yours truly, Kate Field. 
 
 171 Commonwealth Ave., 19 March, 1885. 
 To Miss Kate Field. 
 
 My dear Madam, — I sympathize very cordially in the 
 work you have undertaken against Mormonism, and should 
 be very glad to do anything in my power to advance it. 
 I hesitate, however, to break through a rule of more than 
 forty years' standing, which has confined the platform of 
 the Lowell Institute to men as lecturers, foreseeing the very 
 serious embarrassment which such a break may bring upon 
 me, and feel compelled, though with more reluctance than 
 ever before, to decline the suggestion. I remain. 
 
 Yours very truly, Augustus Lowell. 
 
 March 21, 1885. 
 To Augustus Lowell, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Many thanks for your prompt reply to my 
 letter of inquiry. Will you kindly answer three questions ? 
 
 Did the generous donor of the Lowell Institute Fund 
 specify the sex of the lecturer, or does he leave this matter to 
 the discretion of his executors ? 
 
 Were I a man, would you entertain the idea of lectures 
 on Mormon Treason before the Institute ? 
 
 Were a man delegated to deliver my lecture, would this 
 arrangement be acceptable ? 
 
 Yours truly, Kate Field. 
 
440 Kate Field 
 
 March 21, 1885. 
 To Miss Kate Field. 
 
 My dear Madam, — Upon my return I find your note 
 of this morning, and reply to your questions. . . . 
 
 A literal interpretation of the language of the testator 
 would certainly confine the lectureships of the Lowell Insti- 
 tute to men, and such has been the practice from the 
 beginning. 
 
 While, as I wrote you, I feel personally great sympathy 
 with any attempt to put down Mormonism, I am not clear 
 that an institution devoted to instruction is a fitting place 
 to use it, or that I should be doing my duty to permit it to 
 be so used. 
 
 The suggestion that some man should be permitted to 
 read your lectures would be introducing an entirely new 
 feature, for which I am not prepared. I remain. 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Augustus Lowell. 
 
 In the winters of 1885 and 1886, Miss Field gave 
 three lectures on the Mormon question in Washing- 
 ton, and in reply to her desire to meet the President 
 was this autograph note from Mr. Cleveland : — 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington, 
 Feb. 22, 1886. 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — I have received your note, and 
 in reply have to say that I shall be pleased to see you 
 to-morrow afternoon (Tuesday) at half-past three o'clock. 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 
 "So you have been interviewing President's?" 
 remarked a friend to Miss Field at the breakfast-table, 
 in the Brunswick Hotel, a day or two later, as she 
 came on to Boston. 
 
Into Unknown Ways 441 
 
 "Yes," she replied, smiling; "President Cleveland 
 was good enough to waste some time upon me ; and 
 while it could have been of no particular advantage 
 to him, it was a very great pleasure and satisfaction 
 to me. Only a few days since in Buffalo I made it 
 my business to interview every prominent man and 
 woman with whom I came in contact, on Grover Cleve- 
 land, as they say that you never know anything about 
 a man until you get the opinion of his lifelong neigh- 
 bors. Inasmuch as I am no partisan, and don't care 
 who is President of the United States, provided he is 
 honest, intelligent, and a patriot, it was a great com- 
 fort to be assured by Mr. Cleveland's political oppo- 
 nents as well as by his warm friends, that he was as 
 honest as the sun, true to his convictions, entirely in- 
 corruptible, and while he was an ardent Democrat, he 
 was first a patriot." 
 
 " Well, Kathleen," chimed in another familiar 
 spirit, "do illuminate our understandings with some 
 gleam of light as to what Mr. Cleveland is about? 
 I'm a sceptic, ready to be fairly won over if you '11 
 turn on all your dazzling brilliancy." 
 
 " It 's too early in the day to be resplendent," 
 flashed back Miss Field ; " but I do believe that Mr. 
 Cleveland wants to make a good President, first and 
 foremost ; that he wants to help this country in prefer- 
 ence to helping himself, and if he does he is the right 
 man in the right place. We are approaching a very 
 serious epoch in our history. The genius of good 
 luck seems to have presided at our birth. She gave 
 us George Washington for our first revolution ; that 
 great man Abraham Lincoln for the second, and in 
 the social revolution that is to come who knows but 
 Grover Cleveland may be the saviour of his country? " 
 
442 Kate Field 
 
 "Who, indeed?" exclaimed another friend, toying 
 with his coffee. " For my part, I have learned to 
 believe in miracles, and I am only surprised when 
 they do not happen." 
 
 Kate's merry laugh replied. She looked very 
 lovely that morning in her dark-blue costume, wear- 
 ing a picture hat with long plumes; her blue eyes 
 sparkled and her face was aglow with animation. 
 
 After this conversation she wrote as follows to the 
 President : — 
 
 Dear Mr. Cleveland, — As you say that friends are 
 always sending you .unkind remarks about yourself, I ven- 
 ture to enclose an interview extorted from me during my 
 recent visit to Boston. The reporter was very anxious to 
 know what you said. . I think I know one woman who can 
 hold her tongue. What I told the reporter I believe. 
 
 Apropos of the Utah U. S. Marshal, if you meet John W. 
 Mackay of Nevada, ask him what he thinks of P. H. . . . 
 There never lived a truer man, a sounder Democrat, a 
 pluckier soul or one who understood so well the require- 
 ments of Utah. Several things have occurred recently to 
 prove the weakness of the present incumbent, who is, how- 
 ever, an honest, well-meaning man. Natural limitations 
 are a misfortune, not a fault. 
 
 I also enclose some Mormon scraps to be read by you at 
 your leisure. It is said that a good way to influence men 
 is through their wives. If Mormon agitation can be made 
 fashionable, matters can be expedited. . . . 
 
 That brilliant editor, Charles A. Dana, who made 
 " The Sun " to shine for all, liked nothing better as 
 a jeu d' esprit than to flash his trenchant pen against 
 Kate Field's steel ; and on her appearance in New 
 York with her Mormon lectures he gave this living 
 picture of the occasion. 
 
Into Unknown Ways 443 
 
 Under the heading, " Miss Kate Field as a Model 
 of Self-Possession and Enduring Interest," Mr. Dana 
 wrote : — 
 
 " Kate Field is a remarkable type of the self-possessed 
 woman. She has wit, and a purpose in what she does gives 
 expression to her bright eyes. Newspaper correspondent, 
 European tourist, monologue performer, lecturer, and woman 
 of business, Kate Field has been before the public ; and it 
 is to her credit that in her various roles she has had always 
 something to offer which the public has found it worth 
 while to listen to. 
 
 " Her present hobby is Mormonism, and yesterday she 
 delivered her eighth lecture on the subject in this city. The 
 topic might properly be regarded as a delicate one for a 
 woman to discuss. Miss Field apparently has no scruples 
 upon that point. She deals frankly, even boldly, with the 
 vices and evils as she has found them to exist in Utah. 
 Her argument in a word is this : Mormonism has never 
 been painted black enough, and the Government of the 
 United States, and the people who make public opinion, 
 have never really appreciated the enormity of its sinfulness. 
 Polygamy and Mormonism she treats as practically synony- 
 mous, and, therefore. Mormons are criminals and traitors, 
 and should be dealt with by force of arms if necessary. 
 
 " The methods by which Kate Field holds the interest of 
 her audiences are simple and straightforward. She is direct 
 and earnest in her appeal, and seems to fully feel the force 
 of her own arguments. 
 
 "When the lights were turned on brightly in Chickering 
 Hall the other evening, Kate Field came unannounced upon 
 the stage, and with a quiet, gliding step swept gracefully 
 to a place before the footlights. The red portfolio of notes 
 which she carried she opened upon a small table at her 
 side, and turning her face to the audience she began to 
 speak in a clear, musical voice. Her tone was distinctly 
 
444 Kate Field 
 
 colloquial, and she became more familiar in addressing her 
 audience in the second person as she warmed to her sub- 
 ject. Her enunciation was conspicuously and consciously 
 distinct and clear cut. 
 
 " Miss Field has the reputation of dressing. Her gown 
 was of black silk, trailing far astern. The front breadth of 
 the skirt was of cherry silk, and the same rich hue swept 
 the length of the train. Rows of sparkling jet beads glis- 
 tened from the folds of the drapery. The bodice was 
 sleeveless and V-shaped at the throat. The edges of the 
 opening were softened with black lace, and a fringe of the 
 same flimsy fabric took the place of sleeves. A large bunch 
 of pink roses, held together with a light blue ribbon, adorned 
 the front of the bodice. The arms, otherwise bare, were 
 encased to the elbows in buff gloves so light as not to be 
 easily distinguishable from the white flesh. 
 
 " So much for the attire. The face is less easily described. 
 The brow is broad and low, and fringed by dark hair matted 
 in ringlets. A coil of indistinguishable style holds together 
 the back hair. The eyes are bright and direct in their gaze, 
 the complexion a triple ' peach-blow,' and the lips are full 
 and make no show of pretty puckering. Kate Field's 
 mouth, to tell the truth, is large. Around her white neck 
 she wore a band of black velvet to emphasize the whiteness, 
 and a buckle set with brilliants adorned the velvet. 
 
 " As Miss Field stepped to the footlights she appeared to 
 discredit the record of her birth which is preserved in the 
 old family Bible. She looked young. Her graceful figure 
 was lithe, and she was wholly at her ease under the critical 
 stare of her audience. Having taken her stand she did not 
 move her feet for two hours. Her hands were lightly 
 clasped at her waist and held a dainty lace kerchief. She 
 was admirably at ease. As she spoke every one settled 
 comfortably in his seat, prepared to listen attentively, and a 
 certain musical modulation of her voice made listening easy 
 
Into Unknown Ways 445 
 
 and pleasant. There was nothing of the recitation in her 
 manner of speaking. She was in earnest. She appeared 
 to beheve in the importance of her subject and to feel that 
 she had to overcome the indifference of her audience. 
 Utah and Mormonism are so far away from the East that it 
 is difficult to wake people up to a realization of the true 
 state of affairs. As the feebleness of her single-handed 
 combat with the hydra-headed monster seemed at moments 
 to strike her, she would raise her voice and her daintily 
 gloved hand, and her eyes would flash sparks of indignant 
 fire. Dropping from the height of an impassioned climax, 
 she would wipe the floor with the United States Congress in 
 a whirl of sarcasm and bitter invective. But she never 
 smiled, even at her own most audacious bursts of irony. 
 
 " ' Think of it ! ' she exclaimed, her eyes very wide open 
 and very eloquent in expression ; ' think of it ! New York 
 and Utah under the same flag ! We ought to be ashamed 
 of ourselves,' she said fiercely, and then, dropping her voice 
 and speaking with great deliberation, she added, ' That is, 
 those of us who vote.' 
 
 " Brigham Young she spoke of as ' that vulgar, illogical 
 wonderful old man.' She paid her respects to Uncle Sam 
 with pointed anger. ' John T. Kane, Mormon, upholder of 
 polygamy, traitor,' she said savagely, received ^2,400 a year 
 more for upholding polygamy in Congress than Governor 
 Murray of Utah, a patriot, received for enforcing the laws. 
 ' We have,' she added, ' an abominably magnanimous Gov- 
 ernment ! ' Speaking of the removal of Governor Murray, 
 she said in her most impressive manner : ' It is the great- 
 est blunder of President Cleveland's Administration. I say 
 it with all good wishes for the President and with grief in 
 my heart.' And, it might be added, with grief in her voice 
 as well. 
 
 " After describing the evils of polygamy as she saw them 
 during a long residence in Utah, Miss Field appealed to the 
 
44^ Kate Field 
 
 people to do something. 'The United States Govern- 
 ment,' she said with passion, ' is responsible for thirty 
 years' growth of polygamy, with its degradation of woman 
 and brutalization of man, and it is time that you who hold 
 the ballot should cry, halt ! ' She spoke with a fervor that 
 could not be without effect, and the applause which followed 
 would have elected Miss Field to a place in Congress if 
 such an expression of public approval could be thus counted 
 in her favor. ' The sooner the East gets it out of its head 
 that there is nothing the matter with Mormonism except 
 polygamy, the better,' she went on. ' The great crime of 
 Utah is treason ! ' 
 
 " Miss Field sang a Mormon hymn. She did not change 
 the attitude which she had maintained throughout her lec- 
 ture, and there was no straining after operatic effect. The 
 air was not strikingly unlike a Methodist hymn tune, but the 
 sentiment of the song was profane and treasonable. ' That 
 is a hymn,' she remarked. ' I was afraid you would not 
 know it.' 
 
 " In reviewing the acts of Congress respecting the practice 
 of polygamy in Utah she dismissed them scornfully in two 
 words, thus : ' All farces.' The cure for the disease, she 
 said, was in a universal marriage law. ' It is a disgrace 
 that there is no United States marriage law.' 
 
 " Throughout her address there had been no ranting. Her 
 zeal had never exceeded the bounds of convincing earnest- 
 ness. In concluding. Miss Field dropped her voice and 
 spoke to her hearers as to an individual, face to face : 
 ' Men and women of the great Empire State, you who do 
 so much to make public opinion, what are you going to da 
 about it?' " 
 
 In this transcript from Mr. Dana's instantaneous 
 mental photography there is a vital portrait of Kate 
 Field, the lecturer, that is unsurpassed ; and the keen, 
 half caustic, teasing vein in which it is written makes 
 
Into Unknown Ways 447 
 
 this critical description, or descriptive criticism, one 
 of the most typical specimens of the writing of the 
 most unique and brilliant American journalists. 
 
 Again in Washington Miss Field delivered her 
 Mormon lectures. 
 
 Letters from Hon. T. B. Reed, Senator Morrill, 
 Judge Field, and many others from statesmen and 
 officials flowed in upon her with encouragement in 
 her work. Judge Field thus wrote: — 
 
 Washington, D. C, Feb. 23, 18S5. 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — Thanks for the tickets received 
 this morning. I shall certainly attend your lecture on 
 Thursday evening if I can get rid of my present cold. 
 
 I think it would be a wise thing to send tickets to the 
 other judges. Just at this time the condition of things in 
 Utah excites much interest with them. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, Stephen Field. 
 
 After one of these lectures the following acknowl- 
 edgment came to her : — 
 
 A. M. Soteldo, Minister of Venezuela, sends compliments 
 to Miss Kate Field and his cordial congratulations for the 
 success of her very interesting, admirable lecture of last 
 night, on Utah, the Mormons, and Mormonism. 
 
 The Hon. George Bancroft wrote: — 
 
 1623 H. Street, N. W , 
 Washington, D. C, Feb. 25, 1886. 
 Dear Miss Kate Field, — I was not aware that you 
 had been so good as to call at my house yesterday. I very 
 greatly regret having missed your visit. On inquiry I find 
 that the servant who went to the door misunderstood your 
 question and made no report of it to me. It would have 
 given me particular pleasure to have met you. 
 
 If among your other great qualities you have that oi 
 
448 Kate Field 
 
 being able to lift twenty years from the back of a man of 
 more than fourscore and will exercise it upon me, I shall 
 be one of the most attentive, pleased, and instructed of 
 your listeners to-morrow evening. Otherwise I dare not 
 depart from my habit. I have not been this winter to 
 lecture, opera, or play. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 George Bancroft. 
 
 It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the press 
 comments on Kate Field's Mormon lectures could 
 only be estimated by volumes, so numerous they are. 
 Individual expressions abound, and one of these — 
 made by Mrs. May Wright Sewall of Indianapolis, the 
 foremost leader of the day among the younger women, 
 and the successor of Lady Aberdeen as President of 
 the International Council — is as follows : — 
 
 " Kate Field, — when did I first see her ? As she came 
 out upon the platform at Plymouth Church in Indianapolis 
 to speak on ' The Mormon Monster.' No one who heard 
 it will ever forget that lucid exposure and relentless denun- 
 ciation of the subtle private deterioration and subtle public 
 dangers that lurk in polygamy. That night I got the im- 
 pression of versatihty and freedom which in my mind are 
 always associated with the name of Kate Field. She looked 
 as unlike the lyceum lecturer as possible : in manner and 
 in dress she seemed the woman of fashion ; in thought and 
 in speech, the statesman." 
 
 A letter to Miss Field from Mr. S- L. Clemens, 
 (Mark Twain) is as follows: — 
 
 Hartford, March 8, 1886. 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — Oh, dear me, no. That would be 
 the same as saying that because you differ from me upon 
 the rights and equities of a subject, I am at liberty to hold 
 
Into Unknown Ways 449 
 
 a "poor opinion" of you for voicing your sentiments in the 
 matter. 
 
 Your notion and mine about polygamy is without doubt 
 exactly the same ; but you probably think we have some 
 cause of quarrel with those people for putting it into their 
 religion, whereas I think the opposite. Considering our 
 complacent cant about this country of ours being the home 
 of liberty of conscience, it seems to me that the attitude of 
 our Congress and people toward the Mormon Church is 
 matter for limitless laughter and derision. The Mormon 
 religion is a religion : the negative vote of all of the rest 
 of the globe could not break down that fact ; and so I shall 
 probably always go on thinking that the attitude of our 
 Congress and nation toward it is merely good trivial stuff 
 to make fun of. 
 
 Am I a friend to the Mormon religion ? No. I would 
 like to see it extirpated, but always by fair means, not 
 these Congressional rascalities. If you can destroy it with 
 a book, — by arguments and facts, not brute force, — you 
 will do a good and wholesome work. And I should be 
 very far from unwilling to publish such a book in case my 
 business decks were clear. They are not clear now, how- 
 ever, and it is hard to tell when they will be. They are 
 piled up with contracts which two or three years — and pos- 
 sibly four — will be required to fulfil. I have even had to 
 rule myself out, and am now an author without a pub- 
 lisher. My book is finished and ready, and I have spent 
 nearly ten thousand dollars in its preparation; but it is 
 pigeon-holed indefinitely, to make room for other people's 
 more important books. (In this line of business we gen- 
 erally publish only one — and never more than two — books 
 in a year.) I think I could write a very good moral fable 
 about an author who turned publisher in order to get a 
 better show, and got shut up entirely. 
 
 Truly yours, S. L. Clemens. 
 
 29 
 
450 Kate Field 
 
 The subject of cremation occupied Miss Field very 
 much during this decade, and she was a pioneer in 
 the movement. She wrote a paper advocating it 
 which she read before the Nineteenth Century Club 
 in New York City and before drawing-room audiences 
 in Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington. She ar- 
 gued for it on the grounds that are now so increas- 
 ingly securing its adoption, — • those of the health and 
 safety of the living, the insurance from the terrible 
 fate of burial before life is extinct, and of the eco- 
 nomic interests. That cremation is making great 
 advances among the most enlightened communities 
 is largely due to the efforts of Miss Field, who argued 
 its claims by press work as well as lectures, and who 
 was one of the first members of the cremation society 
 in New York. Miss Field's efforts contributed greatly 
 to influencing public sentiment toward this form of 
 disposing of the dead, and among other able advo- 
 cates of cremation are Rev. R. Heber Newton, D.D., 
 of New York, Prof. Charles Eliot Norton, and Hon. 
 Charles Francis Adams. In her incisive way Miss 
 Field said : — 
 
 " I am a cremationist, because I believe cremation is not 
 only the healthiest and cleanest, but the most poetical way 
 of disposing of the dead. Whoever prefers loathsome 
 worms to ashes, possesses a strange imagination." 
 
 Another measure which she championed by voice 
 and pen during this period was the advocacy of a 
 national marriage law. In her public speaking on 
 this question she frankly ignored divorce as of 
 secondary importance to the far more vital subject of 
 marriage. " In this free and easy country men and 
 women marry early and often, for the reason that they 
 
Into Unknown Ways 451 
 
 can be very much married in some States and not at 
 all in others, while few precautions are taken against 
 fraud," said Miss Field, and added: "Were mar- 
 riage made more difficult, there would be fewer 
 unhappy households. Then divorces would be less 
 frequent, and special legislation, which is always 
 dangerous, would be unnecessary. What this Re- 
 public needs is a national marriage law." 
 
 Writing to the New York " Tribune " on " Utah 
 Politics and Morals," written during this period, 
 Miss Field opens her letter with this vigorous 
 paragraph : — 
 To THE Editor of " The Tribune." 
 
 Sir, — The Mormons have a very great advantage over 
 any other class of people. Nobody out of Utah can con- 
 tradict them for the excellent reason that nobody knows 
 enough. When Matthew Arnold comes from England and 
 gives this Republic the benefit of his opinions concerning 
 Emerson, Boston arises as one man and with a howl of in- 
 dignation denies the hard impeachment. When Monsignor 
 Capel tells Americans that in those Catholic countries where 
 marriage is a sacrament and divorce impossible there is 
 infinitely more social morality than elsewhere, the charming 
 Jesuit is torn to pieces, metaphorically, in scores of journals, 
 East and West. But when a Mormon elder rises to explain 
 on being interviewed by ubiquitous reporters, he carries 
 everything before him. There is no critic sufficiently con- 
 versant with the subject under discussion to say him nay. 
 What a commentary on our boasted intelligence ! When a 
 nation is so big that portions of it become a terra incognita 
 to those who make public opinion and the laws, " there 's 
 something rotten " this side of Denmark. . . . 
 
 In 1887, Miss Field again fared forth to the West on 
 a long lecture tour, and of a public reception given to 
 
452 Kate Field 
 
 her in Salt Lake City by the Loyal Legion, she thus 
 writes in a private letter : — 
 
 ..." Never was a woman more taken by surprise than was 
 I on being presented with a beautiful gold badge set with 
 diamonds. I had been entirely thrown ofif my guard by 
 being called upon to pay for the regulation badge prior to 
 my initiation. Governor Murray is commander of the corps 
 here and expressed great delight at my becoming a mem- 
 ber of his flock." 
 
 The long series of private letters from which these 
 extracts are made concerned themselves largely with 
 the topics of the day. There was in them curiously 
 little of the usual feminine personalities and chatter. 
 Always she took the large and objective view of life. 
 Regarding the discussion over the political course of 
 James Russell Lowell, in 1887, Kate writes: — 
 
 . . . " I think the ' North American ' is too severe on Lowell. 
 He may deserve all that criticism, but I doubt it. The 
 great crime seems to be that he is a Mugwump. As I am 
 a Mugwump, I feel differently. Lowell's great trouble is 
 that he has always been self-indulgent, and has never 
 liked the people. The people are not agreeable at dinner 
 parties, and Lowell likes clean clothes and wit." 
 
 Meeting the " bonanza king, " John Mackay, she 
 thus writes of him: — 
 
 " John W. Mackay has been to see me, and I think I 
 shall like him very much. He is not at all the type of man 
 I imagined he would be. He is five feet ten inches, very 
 erect, iron gray hair and mustache, heavy eyebrows, keen 
 gray eyes, a strong jaw and mouth, and aquiline nose. He 
 looks like the president of a big bank and a United States 
 Senator. The many generous things I have heard about 
 him from those who know him best make me ready to like 
 
Into Unknown Ways 453 
 
 him, and I don't often care for rich men. The poor ones 
 are generally far more interesting. 
 
 " Think of my being more impressed by a wreck of hu- 
 manity in ragged clothes who trims gardens, and whose 
 only friend is Nature, than by all the well-to-do inhabitants 
 of this sleepy valley ! I believe I was intended to consort 
 with outcasts and sinners. I 'm at home with them." 
 
 Extending her tour to Alaska, Miss Field gave the 
 first lecture ever delivered in that country. Her 
 steamer, "The Ancon," reached Juneau, a mining 
 town, at 7 A. M. The passengers went on shore ; and 
 Miss Field delivered her lecture on Charles Dickens 
 in a dance-house, to an audience of miners, who were 
 one of the most appreciative audiences that she ever 
 had. They gave her a vote of thanks, presented her 
 with a bottle of virgin gold and a jelly cake, and she 
 was then taken three miles in a tug to join the steamer 
 at Douglas Island. 
 
 To her most constant correspondent Kate wrote of 
 this Alaskan experience : — 
 
 " It rained twelve days out of seventeen ; and we had fog 
 two more ! I wore out a pair of arctics on shore and went 
 about in a riding-habit and a seal-skin. The habit did 
 away with peiticoats, and in it I defied mud and ascended 
 the Muir glacier. Alaska is very interesting to me, and I 
 shall probably go to work on a lecture at once. I remain 
 here to consult Judge Swan, an Indian authority, and then 
 go over to the Britishers in Victoria. Here I am the guest 
 of Beecher's son. He has a charming little boy named 
 after his grandfather." . . . 
 
 Captain Beecher, to whom Miss Field referred, is 
 a son of Henry Ward Beecher, and his little son. 
 
454 Kate Field 
 
 named for his illustrious grandfather, greatly inter- 
 ested Kate by his childish precocity. 
 
 Referring to a question of her correspondent's, she 
 said : — - 
 
 " If I did not write about the Yosemite, it was not from 
 lack of appreciation. It is great, and I want to go back 
 there. The big trees, too, impressed me tremendously." 
 
 Fortunately there has been preserved a pictorial 
 reminiscence of that wonderful tour. A friend who 
 was one of the party with Miss Field in the Yosemite 
 thus describes the experience : — 
 
 ... "As Kate Field and I rode side by side on our 
 horses through the hushed silence of that awful grandeur, 
 her soul seemed to commune with God." 
 
 This friend relates that after this trip was over and 
 Miss Field had gone on to Victoria on her way to 
 Alaska, she wrote to Kate, speaking earnestly of the 
 unusual influence toward all that was noble and divine 
 which she had received from this companionship in 
 the Yosemite, to which Miss Field replied : — 
 
 " Thank you very much for your extremely kind words, 
 which, I confess, surprised me, as I do not understand why 
 I should produce such an influence upon any one. Never- 
 theless, I am glad I do you good, unworthy a^ I may be." 
 
 On her homeward journey from Alaska Miss Field 
 stopped at Vancouver's Island, where she gave her 
 monologue, " Eyes and Ears in London," to a British 
 audience, who laughed heartily at the inimitable hits 
 on London life, and she began to study the literature 
 giving accounts of the coast Indians. She met and 
 interviewed Judge Swan of Fort Townsend, formerly 
 
Into Unknown Ways 455 
 
 of Boston, and a regular correspondent of the Smith- 
 sonian Institute. The monographs of Judge Swan 
 which the Institute publishes are considered very 
 valuable. From Victoria, under date of July 29, 
 1887, Miss Field writes to a friend: — 
 
 ..." I lectured in Tacoma before a very cordial audi- 
 ence. Yesterday I came here, and give ' Dickens ' to- 
 night and Monologue to-morrow night. As the town, though 
 twelve thousand souled, is only one-tenth Caucasian, the 
 rest being natives, half-breeds, and Chinese, the outlook is 
 a problem ; but as I am here for investigation, it is not of 
 vital importance. The theatre is the nicest I 've seen since 
 I left Salt Lake, and my pianist is a very clever young man 
 who is English and studied in London with Shakespeare. 
 Last night I visited Chinatown, and had an interesting ex- 
 perience. These Pig Tails are wonderful in many respects, 
 and are a great study. They mean more in the civilization 
 of the new world than we dream at present. Thousands 
 are now going East, and the Chinese question will come 
 before you as it never has before." 
 
 This prophetic forecast of Miss Field's has come 
 true. Her insight into political conditions was sin- 
 gularly unerring. Again she writes : — 
 
 . . . "The smugglers of Port Townsend, enraged that 
 Special Agent Beecher, who is in the Custom House, should 
 be an honest man, have attacked him in the most shameful 
 manner." 
 
 Later, from San Francisco, under date of Oct. 19, 
 1887, Kate writes: — 
 
 . . . " I 've met a lovely woman here, — Mrs. Sarah B. 
 Cooper, who is the President of the Kindergartens. She 
 makes one believe in goodness and everything beautiful. 
 She is a cousin of Robert G. Ingersoll." 
 
456 Kate Field 
 
 Miss Field passed the winter of 1887-S8 at that 
 wonderfully beautiful resort, Coronado Beach, and in 
 one letter she says : — 
 
 ..." Coronado Beach is across the bay from San Diego 
 and is well situated for view of ocean and mountain. The 
 day is lovely, and as I look out upon mountain, sunshine, and 
 the glitter of a placid sea, I wish you were here to enjoy its 
 loveliness. An Eastern woman is playing Mendelssohn 
 extremely well in the adjoining parlor. Les extremes se 
 touchent. I know you would exclaim at the fine scenery, 
 the delightful air, the glorious sun, delicious fruit, and the 
 general dolce far niefite. . . . 
 
 " Mrs. Oliphant's ' Old Lady Mary ' has arrived, and what 
 a pretty story it is ! Far ahead of ' Vestigia ' in interest. 
 Then the other two books have come, also ' Life,' also that 
 sweet poem of yours, for which accept my grateful thanks. 
 You 've lots of fancy and emotion. What you need to cul- 
 tivate is your reason. When you can, read logic and study 
 Geometry. Your life all runs one way. Go in for Mon- 
 taigne and Bacon and hard-headed old brains like theirs. 
 
 " Over and over again I wish you were here. It is so 
 lovely and so lazy. I can't do anything — not even write a 
 letter without an effort. The work I came here to do 
 remains undone, and I am desperate in one sense while 
 utterly indifferent in another. But it will soon come to an 
 end, and I shall have my nose to a very sharp grindstone. 
 Miss Willard's note has just arrived. . . . 
 
 " Do you know where Alice and Phoebe Gary were born ? 
 Are they of Irish origin ? I ask to oblige a waiter here, who 
 is very fond of Alice's poetry and who would dearly hke to 
 know. You, who are up in all such things, can probably 
 enlighten me." 
 
J^-^MJUU — . . 
 
 IM^ qLaLsA- \j/-^^ '^. 
 
 -eA^;L^ -^T-DV^t/uu "UJULlo^ \jJ\JtiJ 
 
 Uy-^^ dL, e>u-e_ ^m^L QlaJr^u}^ 
 tK^^^^LR^ _ -^Uv^ -efe^ £a.^ 
 

Into Unknown Ways 457 
 
 Regarding the reports of a lecture by Henry 
 Irving, the actor (now Sir Henry), Miss Field com- 
 mented : — 
 
 " The matter of his lecture is not new, always excepting 
 the anecdote of Charlotte Cushman, which is new and good 
 of its kind. Mr. Irving has genius, — the genius of stage 
 decoration and much beside. He understands his age. I 
 saw him and Ellen Terry in ' Much Ado ' lately." 
 
 And again from Coronado on March i, 1888, she 
 writes : — 
 
 . . . " I 've been trying to catch up with the news in in- 
 tervals of writing letters and being interviewed. I 'm told 
 that the ideal climate is found on the Sandwich Islands. 
 
 " Here 's something funny. A journalist attached to your 
 ' Inter-Ocean ' has just called for my autograph. Looking 
 over his book I found 
 
 ' George Q. Cannon, 
 
 Salt Lake City,' 
 at the top of a page, written just ten years ago. Oppo- 
 site his name I 've written, 'Where is he now? ' You know 
 he is hiding from justice. Below I wrote ' Extremes 
 meet,' and signed my name with date." 
 
 In reference to some remark of her correspondent's 
 regarding Edgar Fawcett, the poet and novelist, Miss 
 Field replied: — 
 
 " Edgar Fawcett is an unusual man, and I 'd like to know 
 him. How clever his letters are ! Where does he get the 
 time to write them ? My scrawls are the veriest shreds and 
 patches. 
 
 " I do not think of birthdays myself. They mean nothing 
 
458 Kate Field 
 
 if people don't grow, and if people grow they mean less. 
 It 's experience and discipline and illumination that count 
 — not years or the lack of them. 
 
 " I wish the word unwomanly meant as much the lack of 
 moral courage as does the word unmanly. It ought. 
 
 " Do see ' Held By The Enemy.' That is an acting play, 
 hailed with dehght in London as I knew it would be." 
 
 In the summer of 1888 the State Viticultural Com- 
 mittee of California asked Miss Field to present, in 
 lectures in Eastern cities, the claim of pure California 
 wine as a table beverage, and to recommend its uni- 
 versal use as the only means of settling the much- 
 mooted question of temperance reform in a satisfac- 
 tory way. To President Wetmore of the State 
 Board, Miss Field replied, acceding to the proposi- 
 tion. The undertaking was a mistake on her part. 
 Her attitude and ideas were grossly maligned and 
 misrepresented ; and the question as to whether light 
 wines for table use would replace the present excess 
 of tea and coffee; and whether, if they did, their use 
 would restrict rather than increase any desire for 
 more harmful beverages, — is still an open question 
 with perhaps no probabilities in its favor. The New 
 York " Tribune " of July 17, 1889, said editorially : 
 
 "Miss Field behaves with many thousands of sincere 
 persons that the general introduction of pure native wines 
 would promote practical temperance. She and those who 
 agree with her may be utterly mistaken. A zealous effort to 
 prove them in the wrong would be entirely commendable, 
 whereas a campaign of personal defamation, though it may 
 have driven her temporarily from the field, is not only a 
 
Into Unknown Ways 459 
 
 despicable, but in the long run an exceedingly disastrous, 
 mode of warfare." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Phillips Brooks in his " Fast-Day " 
 sermon of that year expressed his serious doubts 
 regarding the efficacy of prohibition. Miss Field's 
 own view was thus given by herself: — 
 
 " No, I am not blind to the evil of drunkenness. It is 
 terrible, both in itself and in the results. But my remedy is 
 not that of the Prohibitionist. I believe that is only going 
 to make matters worse. I do believe in temperance, not 
 merely in drinking, but in eating and general living ; and I 
 tell you drunkenness is almost entirely unknown in the vine- 
 yard countries of the world where the wines are made. The 
 poorest person has his bottle of wine with his frugal meal ; 
 it is harmless, it is inexpensive, it is pure." 
 
 Miss Field's attitude toward the entire matter was 
 not unlike that of Phillips Brooks, who maintained 
 that every individual soul must be educated to recog- 
 nize its individual responsibilities and " be subject 
 unto the higher powers." 
 
 Yet while it was a mistake for Miss Field to lend 
 her influence even briefly — for she entirely withdrew 
 from this within one year — to any such theory, still, 
 misrepresentation, personal malignment, a di.stortion 
 of facts, due either to mental failure to perceive in- 
 telligently, or to wilful blindness, are not calculated 
 to impress the world as methods of either temper- 
 ance or of Christianity. There is one great law of 
 prohibition on which humanity will agree, and that is 
 the divine prohibition which says, " Thou shalt not 
 bear false witness against thy neighbor." 
 
 The error had, however, no permanent conse- 
 
460 Kate Field 
 
 quences, and the just and sympathetic recognition of 
 her real motives, expressed by many representative 
 Prohibitionists, was very grateful to her. Bishop 
 Vincent, referring to one of her lectures before the 
 Chautauqua Assembly, wrote her, saying : — 
 
 " Your visit to Chautauqua was a source of great 
 delight to our people. Everybody was charmed." 
 
 The falling into errors of judgment and mistaken 
 ideas is a part of the mortal pilgrimage ; but the test 
 of the noble soul is not to remain in these errors. 
 The life on earth is a moral school, and to acquire 
 constantly advancing ideals and be loyal to the best 
 that is revealed is to achieve success. 
 
 The question was asked by Miss Field as to whether 
 Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale was a Prohibitionist, 
 and a friend of hers undertook to procure his views, 
 which the distinguished divine thus expressed : — 
 
 My dear Miss , ■ — For many years after I began 
 
 housekeeping I had not a wineglass in my house. I do 
 not know that there is one in the house now. 
 
 This will represent my feeling in the matter. I think it 
 is necessary to drink wine sometimes ; I am ordered to 
 myself by my medical advisers. But I do not think it nec- 
 essary to present it to one's guests as an elegance with every 
 fascination that art, poetry, and literature can give it. 
 
 I do not offer sherry or champagne to my guests any 
 more than I offer them quinine or paregoric. If they need 
 either, I should hope they would ask me, and I should try 
 to provide them as well as I could, but I should not make 
 this a matter of elegant hospitality. 
 
 You may send this note to Miss Field. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Edward Everett Hale. 
 
Into Unknown Ways 461 
 
 All these years from 1883-90 were a ceaseless 
 round of travelling and lecturing. She studied and 
 read and thought; she was in social contact with 
 representative people all over the country; and her 
 polished and many-sided culture added its charm to 
 a woman singularly charming by natural gifts. She 
 had fire, and force, and fervor; sense, sweetness, and 
 sincerity, — finely balanced and held in equipoise. 
 Too often the fateful dower of genius is neutralized 
 by the fatal lack of common sense. Lombroso is not 
 alone in his theories which so many facts support. 
 Kate Field escaped this penalty that is so frequently 
 imposed on exceptional organizations. She had tact 
 as well as talent; and an extraordinary versatility, a 
 power of adaptation, a facile adjustment of forces, lent 
 energy of achievement to every plan and endeavor. 
 
 In all her intense activity in various and varied di- 
 rections, Kate Field was always to one friend a 
 prompt and a constant correspondent. These private 
 letters were very rich in thought and expression. 
 When " Robert Elsmere " first appeared, she was lec- 
 turing in the Far West, and as the friend sent her, at 
 once, a copy of the much-talked of novel, she wrote : 
 
 " ' Robert Elsmere ' is all you claim for it. I am deeply 
 moved by it, and am more indebted to you than you can 
 think. What a study it is ! How great, how earnest, how 
 artistic ! Nothing slighted, and the broad mind does the 
 suffering as usual, and finds little sympathy at home. What 
 a tragedy ! " 
 
 During this decade of 1880-90 Miss Field had 
 passed two summers in Europe, sojourning in Lon- 
 don, Paris, and Switzerland; she had made three 
 journeys to the Pacific coast, extending two of these 
 
462 Kate Field 
 
 to Alaska, and she had travelled several times over 
 the region covering Boston, New York, Washington, 
 Chicago, Minneapolis, and Denver. Always on her 
 arrival in any city she was in a maze of social engage- 
 ments, newspaper interviews, and turmoil in general. 
 Her returns to the East were the signal for press in- 
 terviews again, and in one of these, in the New York 
 " Herald," she said in reply to a question: — 
 
 " I remained in Zion one month, and having been asked 
 to lecture there, and having been told by the Mormons 
 that my lecture concerning them was a tissue of falsehoods, 
 I delivered the tissue of falsehoods in the city of the 
 enemy, and had the satisfaction of having it universally in- 
 dorsed by the Gentiles and apostate Mormons, and being 
 treated with profound silence by the Mormons themselves. 
 It was all the proof I wanted that I had told the truth. It 
 was then that I was made a member of the Women's Relief 
 Corps of the Grand Army of the Republic, and presented 
 with a very beautiful gold and diamond badge by the loyal 
 citizens of Utah, — a memento which I assure you I treasure 
 profoundly." 
 
 During the seven years when she was making these 
 Western trips her private letters, as has already been 
 noted, were intensely interesting. The friend to whom 
 she wrote constantly sent to her the new books, news- 
 paper clippings, reviews, and the general movement 
 of the East, and Kate's comments on all the literary 
 and social panorama would make a lively volume, 
 albeit one that could more appropriately be published 
 a century hence, according to Mark Twain's latest 
 idea. When Mr. Aldrich made the literary sensation 
 of the hour by publishing " A Brother of Dragons " 
 in the " Atlantic Monthly," and when, fast following, 
 
Into Unknown Ways 463 
 
 came that curious creation, " The Quick and the 
 Dead," a copy was sent to Kate, who wrote in 
 response : — 
 
 " I 've read ' The Quick and the Dead,' and I must con- 
 fess that I do not like hysterics in any form, especially in 
 literature. I suppose there are indications of power in the 
 story, but what gasping, gurgling bosh the whole thing is ! 
 And that 's what half-educated people will call ' passion.' 
 Oh, dear ! What 's the use of art and taste, when the public 
 will buy this counterfeit? One bookseller in San Francisco 
 sold three hundred copies of ' Quick, etc.,' in one week. 
 
 " ' Why do people buy it ? ' I asked. 
 
 '" Because they think it is improper,' replied the clerk. 
 
 " From my point of view the impropriety consists in very 
 bad taste, bad art, and straining after eliifect." 
 
 Again, of meeting Mrs. Howe in California, she 
 writes : — 
 
 " I 've just returned from lunching with Mrs. Howe at 
 her sister's (Mrs. Maillard) whose husband (what a. sen- 
 tence !) has a ranch eight miles away. Mrs. Maillard is a 
 lady and sweet, biit she is not J. W. H. Mr. Maillard is a 
 handsome Frenchman, who came over here with Joseph 
 Bonaparte and shared the fortunes of the house. There 
 are two daughters, unmarried ; one especially is very inter- 
 esting in her appearance. The Maillards have been rich. 
 . . . Mrs. Howe has been lecturing successfully, and is 
 greatly pleased with the coast." 
 
 Meeting Mr. Gushing, the ethnologist, she says: — 
 
 " Frank Gushing, whose health is much better than it was 
 a year ago, is again visiting San Francisco. He lunched 
 with me here lately and was delighted with the scenery. If 
 possible, he will come over again and we '11 go in search of 
 
464 Kate Field 
 
 Indian remains. How lucky he is to be backed by a woman 
 like Mrs. Hemenway ! " 
 
 Everywhere Miss Field found or made friends. 
 She was the guest of honor at many a festive occasion 
 gotten up for her, and she rode, and drove, and ob- 
 served, and thought. 
 
 In reply to some playful allusion to Boston's mu- 
 sical status at the moment, she wrote : — 
 
 " I fail to see why a season of opera in the bel lingua del 
 si should retard either musical taste or the advent of na- 
 tional opera. On the contrary, as the study of all literature 
 and all schools of painting are necessary to the develop- 
 ment of authors and painters, so the study of all schools of 
 music is advantageous to musical students. . . . 
 
 " I had a fine ride several days ago, and think I 've found 
 a decent saddle-horse. But I sha'n't remain here longer 
 than I can help, as I want to see Monterey, where the Hotel 
 Del Monte is said to be wonderfully fine. Then there is 
 the great Lick Observatory to visit and lots of things to be 
 done. Life is too short for one to accomplish anything." 
 
 All this large knowledge of the resources and the 
 people of the country was the inspiration out of 
 which she evolved her next undertaking, — that of 
 founding a journal of her own and fixing her residence 
 in the nation's Capital. She had so come into touch 
 with the great West during these years that she was 
 eager to discuss conditions, social, political, and 
 economic, in a way that demanded an individual 
 channel. Out of this longing she evolved the idea of 
 her national review, — with whose appearance the 
 next decade of her life was to open, — her journal, 
 which was named "Kate Field's Washington." 
 
KATE FIELD'S WASHINGTON 
 
 I cannot bear to think what life would be 
 
 With high hope shrunk to endurance, stunted aims, 
 
 A self sunk down to look with level eyes 
 
 On low achievements. 
 
 I accept the peril, 
 
 I choose to walk high with sublime dread 
 
 Rather than crawl in safety. 
 
 ^ George Eliot. 
 
 An old French sentence says : " God works in moments," — 
 " En peu d'heure Dieu labeure." We ask for long life, but 'tis 
 deep life or grand moments that signify. Let the measure of 
 time be spiritual, not mechanical. Life is unnecessarily long. 
 Moments of insight, of fine personal relation, a smile, a glance, — 
 what ample borrowers of eternity they are ! Life culminates 
 and concentrates ; and Homer said : " The gods ever give to 
 mortals their apportioned share of reason only on one day." — 
 Emerson. 
 
 For who would lose, 
 
 Though full of pain, this intellectual being, 
 
 Those thoughts that wander through eternity. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 30 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 If we shall stand still, 
 In fear our motion will be mocked or carped at, 
 We should take root here where we sit, or sit 
 State-statues only. 
 
 King Henry the Eighth. 
 
 Genius is not, generally speaking, unconscious of what it experiences or of 
 what it is capable. It is not the suspended harp which sounds (as the statue 
 of Memnon in the desert sounds in the sun), at the Changing, unforeseen breath 
 of wind that sweeps across its strings ; it is the conscious power of the soul of 
 a man, rising from amidst his fellow-men, believing and calling himself a son 
 of God, an apostle of eternal truth and beauty upon the earth, the privileged 
 worshipper of an ideal as yet concealed from the majority ; he is almost 
 always sufficiently tormented by his contemporaries to need the consolation of 
 this faith in himself, and this communion in spirit with the generations to 
 come. — Mazzini. 
 
 "Kate Field's Washington." A Unique Enterprise. Miss 
 Gilder's Friendship. Charming Life in the Capital. 
 The Columbian Exposition. France confers the " Palms 
 OF the Academy " on Miss Field. 
 
 DURING this most significant decade of 1880-90, 
 Miss Field had laid the foundations, uncon- 
 sciously to herself at the time, of an unique enter- 
 prise, — that of her weekly review, called " Kate 
 Field's Washington," whose initial number was issued 
 on Jan. i, 1890. Consulting with friends from 
 the coast of the blue Atlantic to the sunset shore of 
 the Pacific, she met warm encouragement and sus- 
 taining sympathy. Subscriptions set in almost on 
 the first intimation of the idea. The prospectus was 
 richly freighted with advertising, and a writer who 
 had gained an even larger practical experience in 
 
468 Kate Field 
 
 the world than had Kate Field might well have be- 
 lieved that the conditions were most favorable for a 
 financial as well as for a literary success. There had 
 been nothing in Kate's entire life which had so con- 
 centrated her interest, and stimulated every gift and 
 grace of her nature, as this enterprise of founding 
 and conducting a national review of her own. She 
 thought of it by day and dreamed of it by night. One 
 reason lay in the fact that, to a very unusual de- 
 gree, Kate Field lived and moved and had her being 
 in the current of events ; she was intensely interested 
 in her own time. With Mrs. Browning she could 
 have said : — 
 
 " I do distrust the poet who discerns 
 No character or glory in his times, 
 And trundles back his soul five hundred years, 
 Past moat and drawbridge, into a castle-court." 
 
 In addition to this profound sympathy with con- 
 temporary progress. Miss Field had in her nature a 
 dominant vein of leadership. This was instinctive; 
 and while it never degenerated into arrogance or mere 
 self-assertion ; while it was of too noble and aspiring 
 a trend to work on the lower planes, — it was yet 
 so essentially an element in her temperament as to 
 color and control her life. Always she revealed this 
 . strong affirmative force. 
 
 It was natural that, with her profound interest in 
 political matters. Miss Field should be strongly at- 
 tracted to Washington as a residence. Its brilliant 
 and varied social life appealed to her in its cosmo- 
 politan quality, and the absence of trade and traffic 
 offisred an equally strong inducement to her to there 
 set up her household gods. Of all Miss Field's 
 friends the -one who perhaps entered most intimately 
 
Kate Field. 
 From a Photograph, 18S9. 
 
J'iA^ 
 
 <XA^ 
 
 
Kate Field's Washington 469 
 
 into her counsel at this time was Miss Jeannette L. 
 Gilder, the accomplished editor of " The Critic," who 
 some years before had gone through the same dis- 
 tinctive experience of founding a weekly journal. 
 Miss Gilder, as is well known, is the sister of the 
 poet-editor of the " Century Magazine," and although 
 some years the junior of Miss Field, they had been 
 warm friends since Miss Gilder's earliest girlhood, 
 when Kate had been very helpful to her in securing a 
 connection with a leading New York daily, and sug- 
 gesting a certain dramatic treatment of literary criti- 
 cism which Miss Gilder evolved to a high degree 
 of brilliancy. In the latter-day life of letters in 
 America, Jeannette Gilder has made herself a promi- 
 nent and honorable figure; and on her literary judg- 
 ment and warm personal friendship Miss Field greatly 
 relied. The little scene of the first creation of " Kate 
 Field's Washington," as a castle in the air, so to speak, 
 was dramatized by Miss Field in an humorous para- 
 graph, with the scene laid in the Victoria Hotel in 
 New York, and Miss Gilder and herself discovered. 
 As the conversation of these two leading characters 
 progressed. Miss Gilder seems to have been respon- 
 sible for the title of Miss Field's review. 
 
 " In spite of love-sick Juliet there 's a deal in a 
 good name," exclaimed Miss Gilder. " Call it ' Kate 
 Field's Weekly.' You must use your own name," she 
 continued ; " it is your trade-mark." 
 
 Accordingly this title was decided upon, save 
 that the Weekly was changed to Washington. Colonel 
 Crocker of San Francisco and the brilliant Colonel 
 Henry Watterson came on the scene. Both approved 
 the idea, and Miss Field became convinced les beaux 
 esprits se rencontrent. The impelling force in this ven- 
 
47° Kate Field 
 
 ture was well defined by the Springfield " Republican " 
 in the remark that " Kate Field's vehement individu- 
 ality wants an outlet, and nothing else will serve so 
 well." The initial number, bearing date of Jan. i, 
 1890, offered to its readers Miss Field's " Credo " 
 embodied as follows : — 
 
 " I believe in Washington as the hub of a great nation. 
 
 " I believe that the capital of a republic of sixty millions 
 of human beings is the locality for a review knowing no 
 sectional prejudices and loving truth better than party. 
 
 " I believe that ' men and women are eternally equal and 
 eternally different ; ' hence I believe there is a fair field in 
 Washington for a national weekly edited by a woman. 
 
 "I believe in home industries; in a reduced tariff; in 
 civil-service reform ; in extending our commerce ; in 
 American shipping ; in strengthening our army and navy ; 
 in temperance which does not mean enforcing total absti- 
 nence on one's neighbor ; in personal liberty. 
 
 " I believe in literature, art, science, music, and the 
 drama, as handmaids of civilization. 
 
 " I believe society should be the best expression of 
 humanity. 
 
 " I believe in a rehgion of deeds. 
 
 A more extraordinary way of establishing a jour- 
 nal could hardly be devised. It was Kate Fieldian 
 throughout. 
 
 This journal started on a fairly good financial basis, 
 a part of the stock being taken by eminent financiers. 
 Miss Field secured an accomplished journalist, Mr. 
 Francis Leupp, a correspondent of the New York 
 "Evening Post," as her managing editor, and two very 
 able and accomplished young women, graduates of 
 Vassar, — Miss Leonard and Miss Lingle, — made up 
 the staff. An office in the Corcoran Building was taken, 
 
Kate Field's Washington 471 
 
 and Miss Field located herself in a suite in Washing- 
 ton's most fashionable hotel, the Shoreham, where 
 from her windows she looked out on Washington's 
 monument and the blue waters of the Potomac. 
 
 " Fancy the thermometer at 70°," she wrote to a 
 friend one February day. " Who wants to go further 
 South? How I wish you were here to see how beau- 
 tiful the Washington Monument is against the blue 
 sky! 
 
 " I shall be happy to meet Madame Helen Hope- 
 kirk or any other friend of yours. You need never 
 ask in advance. I 'm at her service, and will do all I 
 can for her." 
 
 This January of 1890 found President Harrison in 
 the White House, the Fifty-First Congress assem- 
 bled, Chief Justice Fuller confirmed for the Supreme 
 Bench, and Hon. Thomas B. Reed in the Speaker's 
 chair. " No Speaker within the memory of the old- 
 est inhabitant has done so much work in so little 
 time," Miss Field remarked, editorially, of Speaker 
 Reed. Besides political affairs Miss Field was deeply 
 interested in the site of the Columbian Exposition, 
 which was then a question of the hour, and she 
 warmly advocated Washington, on its claims as the 
 Nation's Capital. Regarding one suggestion made 
 by Miss Field, the Chicago " Inter-Ocean " com- 
 mented : — 
 
 " That is a brilliant idea of Miss Kate Field, expressed 
 in her ' Washington ' this week, — of a comic opera founded 
 on a return of Columbus to Chicago in 1893, to observe the 
 customs and manners of the country he discovered. Miss 
 Field is given to having brilliant ideas by nature and grace, 
 but this is an especially felicitous one. Where is the Amer- 
 ican Gilbert and Sullivan to write the opera?" 
 
472 Kate Field 
 
 The initial number of the " Washington " contained 
 a Christmas comedietta called " Plato and Cupid," 
 written by Miss Field, who had been for many years 
 a member of the Dramatic Authors Society of Eng- 
 land. In the literary world realism was holding its 
 triumphant — if transient — sway ; the drama 'was 
 endeavoring to persuade itself and the public that 
 Ibsen was the predestined star of the stage ; the self- 
 revelations of Marie Bashkirtseff were being discussed 
 with a fervency worthy a more important theme, and 
 the theosophical movement was making rapid prog- 
 ress as a subject of intelligent consideration by the 
 press and the people. Always hospitable to every 
 new illumination thrown on the problem of life, Miss 
 Field secured from Mr. W. Q. Judge — afterward the 
 President of the Theosophical Society in America — 
 a series of articles entitled " Echoes from the Orient," 
 setting forth this philosophy over the signature of 
 " Occultus." The State of Washington — then newly 
 admitted to the Union — engaged Miss Field's in- 
 terest also ; and an interview with Senator Squire, 
 conducted, as was humorously asserted, by " grape- 
 vine telephone," thus opened : — 
 
 " Is this Senator Squire of Washington? " 
 
 " Yes, both Squire and ^jquire, ready to break a lance in 
 behalf of Kate Field's Washington, first, because the new 
 weekly deserves success ; secondly, because — 
 
 'Namesakes ever should be friends. 
 So the Spanish proverb tends.' 
 
 Pardon me for ' dropping into poetry,' like our old friend 
 Wegg, but even politics can't kill all sentiment burning 
 within the Senatorial breast." 
 
 " I 'm delighted at your confession. One of the most 
 
Kate Field's Washington 473 
 
 agreeable dinners I attended last year was seasoned by 
 poetry falling from the lips of Senator Edmunds as grace- 
 fully as falls the Bridal Veil in Yosemite Valley. But if you 
 really love poetry, why in the name of all that is fitting did 
 you not baptize your State Tacoma ? There should be one 
 Washington and no more, — Washington, the Capital of the 
 Nation. Now, you are Washington, and we are Washington, 
 D. C. It is too bad. The way ignorant postmasters and 
 incompetent clerks are doomed to ' mix those babies up ' 
 adds a new terror to our aggravating postal service." 
 
 " My dear friend, listen to reason. Tacoma is a beauti- 
 ful name, beautifully derived, supposed by some to mean 
 'nourishing breast,' and, by Theodore Winthrop, to be 
 ' applied to all snow peaks,' while better authority claims 
 that it merely signifies ' the mountain.' However, be that 
 as it may, we already have a fine town named Tacoma, the 
 second largest in the State, Seattle being first, and Spokane 
 Falls third." 
 
 The new journal took great interest in the -South, 
 also, as well as in the great West, from its earliest 
 number, and Miss Field's earnest aim was that of true 
 and devoted service to national progress. By no 
 means averse to fame and fortune, it may yet be 
 seriously stated that Kate's first thought and supreme 
 aim was to serve genuinely the best interests of the 
 time. The scope of her paper included literature 
 and the drama, and a column headed " The Players " 
 was each week filled with matter pertaining to the 
 stage, a good proportion of this being of permanent 
 nature in dramatic literature. When her " Washing- 
 ton " was first started. Miss Field had asked her old 
 friend Edwin Booth to give the name to its dramatic 
 column, and he wrote: — 
 
474 Kate Field 
 
 The Players, i6 Gramercy Park, 
 December 4, 1889. 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — You'll hardly credit it, but I 
 have really made two attempts since our little chat t' other 
 evening to do something for " Washington," but in despair I 
 retire to my tent. I have also endeavored to find a fitting 
 motto for you, but in vain. If the column should be enti- 
 tled " The Players," how would these do for headlines, in 
 lieu of a motto ? 
 
 " Hither are they come to offer you service. 
 Let them be well used. 
 The players cannot keep counsel : they '11 tell all." 
 
 I like your prospectus very much and think the " Play- 
 ers " column an excellent idea. I wish I could contribute 
 something to it. "The Players" must subscribe for it. 
 If they do not I will do so for my personal use. 
 
 You have my sincere wishes for immediate and lasting 
 success. Very truly yours, 
 
 Edwin Booth. 
 
 The keen comedian, William Florence, character- 
 istically wrote : " Splendid manifesto ! Go in and 
 win. Congratulations." 
 
 Robert Underwood Johnson, that charming poet, 
 who is associated with Mr. Gilder in the editor- 
 ship of the " Century," — a magazine whose quality 
 proves that two poets may be the most successful of 
 editors, — joined with Miss Field in consideration of 
 the best care of the Yosemite. Miss Field had in- 
 deed a series of " causes " that she espoused in her 
 " Washington," among which, besides free art and 
 the international copyright, was the preservation of 
 the Yosemite, in which she and Mr. Johnson seem 
 to have entered into a conspiracy together. Two 
 letters from Mr. Johnson run : — 
 
Kate Field's Washington 475 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — Your Yosemite letter is admirable 
 and will prove effective. I am circulating it. I enclose 
 the " Times' " comment on it. With thanks for your 
 article and your father's clever copyright verses, 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Robert Underwood Johnson. 
 I '11 keep you informed of anything important in the 
 Yosemite matter. Will you kindly do the same for me ? 
 
 And again: — 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — It may be whistling before we are 
 out of the woods, but I wish to congratulate you on the 
 present state of the free art question, with a Heaven forfend 
 that there should be any accident to the cause to which you 
 have contributed time, labor, money, and enthusiasm to 
 such a distinguished degree. You have borne the heat and 
 burden of the day, and yours is the chief share in the vic- 
 tory. This is another proof that with a good cause all that 
 is needed is to keep up the fight. Sooner or later our 
 legislators must listen, and consider, and decide. 
 
 I hope you will keep pegging away at the Yosemite ques- 
 tion. California next winter ought to recede the old grant 
 of 1864, to be . . . in the Yosemite National Park, and 
 thus rid herself of the disgrace and scandal of a perpetually 
 mismanaged trust. The money-changers are in that Tem- 
 ple of Nature, and nothing but the lashing of an indignant 
 public opinion will ever drive them out. 
 Always faithfully yours, 
 
 Robert Underwood Johnson. 
 
 All these various and varying matters enlisted 
 Kate's earnest attention. 
 
 And now, while only five more years remained to 
 her in this world, could the recorder of the story of 
 her life regard this period as the entering on the last 
 chapter ? By no means. Miss Field's power of con- 
 
476 Kate Field 
 
 centrating events and experiences invested this brief 
 time with the significance that might have diffused 
 itself through half a century. She entered on the 
 conduct of her journal with all her energy of purpose. 
 It became, inevitably, the personal expression of her 
 own many-sided individuality. It made a distinct 
 impression on the public, — this keen, brilliant, and 
 inclusive commentary on life and affairs, — distinctly 
 individual and unique in all journalism. 
 
 Of the many cities in which Miss Field had lived 
 at various times, she was the most attached to Wash- 
 ington. To a friend who wrote to her regarding 
 Europe as the more congenial atmosphere for a liter- 
 ary worker she replied : — - 
 
 " Don't think Europe the place for an American. It is 
 well to visit. It is no place for work. I think there 's 
 more material for art in this country than in all the Old 
 World combined. What European novel by an American 
 can touch ' The Scarlet Letter ' ? Study in the Old World if 
 you like, but work at home." 
 
 Miss Field held that Washington was destined to 
 be the social, literary, and artistic centre of this coun- 
 try, as well as the political. It is the only town, she 
 said, which is beautifully and systematically laid out; 
 whose streets are properly paved ; where there are 
 breathing places throughout the town, — lungs, as it 
 were; where there is no commerce; where there is 
 a certain repose necessary for society ; and where the 
 climate, if not absolutely perfect, is, on the whole, 
 better all the year round than anywhere else in the 
 United States. Of social life she held always, as we 
 have seen, a high ideal, fully sympathizing with 
 Emerson when he said : " There is the promise and 
 
Kate Field's Washington 477 
 
 the preparation of a day when the air of the world 
 shall be purified by nobler society ; when the measure 
 of greatness shall be usefulness in the highest sense, 
 — greatness consisting in truth, reverence, and good 
 will." Her interest in political progress could here 
 be satisfied at the fountain head, and in Washington 
 Miss Field had especial social prestige because her 
 genius and culture and intellectual vigor were more 
 appreciated by the significant society, par excellence, 
 of the Capital than the same gifts could have been in 
 a society of wealth and fashion alone. Apparently, 
 again life stretched fair before her ; but there was in 
 her nature an unrest — divine or otherwise — that 
 would never permit her to repose in a haven of peace. 
 One of her first movements after finding herself and 
 her new Review fairly settled, was to accept the invi- 
 tation of a press excursion to cross the continent 
 again, San Francisco being the objective point, the 
 journey being made in a special train fitted up with 
 every conceivable luxury. Although she had a state- 
 room to herself, the journey fatigued her more than 
 usual ; and on her return she came for a little time to 
 the Hotel Brunswick in Boston, on a visit to her Aunt 
 Corda, who passed the winter of 1889-90 at this house, 
 so delightfully located in Copley Square, with Trinity 
 Church, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Public 
 Library at its very doors; and both her aunt, and 
 a friend to whom Kate was very dear, felt that she 
 was in great need of rest and care. But no rest ever 
 came. She continued to lecture, to travel, to write 
 half the matter, or more, in every issue of her paper, 
 and she was a prominent and always charming figure 
 in the diplomatic and social life of dinners and re- 
 ceptions. She was living a half-dozen lives at once, 
 
478 Kate Field 
 
 any one of which was enough to have absorbed all 
 her strength. Devoting, as she did, so much space 
 to Congressional proceedings, " Kate Field's Wash- 
 ington" was the object of no little interest on the 
 part of the political magnates of the country. In 
 literature she occasionally made an impression that, 
 in one instance at least, very nearly approached a sen- 
 sation. This was at the time that Tolstoi's " Kreutzer 
 Sonata" appeared, when, in her Review for June ii, 
 1890, she wrote of it an editorial article that fairly 
 electrified a great number of readers. Both praise 
 and blame were freely expressed all through the 
 country. Mr. Hovvells commended Miss Field's 
 article, and said that both he and Mrs. Howells, when 
 reading the book, felt that Tolstoi did not repre- 
 sent his own views on marriage in the character of 
 Posdnicheff, but used the character to point out 
 great evils, and that they regarded it as one of the 
 most valuable works Tolstoi had ever written. 
 
 There remains now among Miss Field's manuscripts 
 a large package of letters from strangers and friends, 
 written to her expressing the most fervent admiration 
 of her comments on this literary firebrand. A prac- 
 tical result to her was a host of new subscribers. 
 " You are everlastingly right," wrote one well-known 
 litterateur; " from my point of view it is the strong- 
 est, the most searching article you have ever penned." 
 Another author wrote, saying : — 
 
 " I have waded through pages of reviews of the ' Kreutzer 
 Sonata,' and, absolutely, yours is the first rational or satis- 
 factory word I 've seen on the subject. It is incredibly 
 delightful to find a woman not afraid to say a word in de- 
 fence of love and the senses. As one is extremely sure of 
 
Kate Field's Washington 479 
 
 being classified either as sentimentalist or sensualist, it ar- 
 gues a good deal of courage or a good deal of conviction 
 to speak freely. The conviction is still better than the 
 courage — to my mind." 
 
 Miss Field's expressions that attracted so much 
 attention were these : — 
 
 " If it be a crime to tell the truth, of course Tolstoi 
 should be suppressed. But is it ? 
 
 "Tolstoi's story is no less disagreeable than strong, written 
 evidently as a sermon, not as a work of art. As a sermon it 
 fulfils its mission, despite ravings permissible as emanating 
 from a conscience-stricken wife-murderer. I cannot believe 
 that Tolstoi would personally make the statement, ' Women 
 know very well that the noblest and most poetic love de- 
 pends, not on moral qualities, but on the physical intimacy, 
 and also on the manner of doing the hair and the color 
 and shape of the dress.' That moral qualities alone do 
 not inspire the ' noblest and most poetic love ' is true 
 enough. A personality must be sympathetic to be loved, 
 but it is paying a poor compliment to the Creator to assume 
 that physical attraction is necessarily gross, something to be 
 despised. . . . 
 
 " To scoff at magnetic attraction is merely to write one- 
 self down a vulgar being to whom the laws of life are a 
 sealed book. . . . 
 
 "When a man or a woman's highest ideal ceases to be 
 union, — a union based on love which is the consecration of 
 passion, — the world will be in worse condition than it is 
 to-day. . . . 
 
 " The greatest thing in all the world is a grand passion, 
 and the man or woman capable of it is capable of the 
 greatest heroism." 
 
 The editorial pages of this clever Revievi^ were 
 trenchant, broad, and very hospitable to new ideas. 
 
480 Kate Field 
 
 Like Mazzini, Kate Field believed in God and the 
 people. 
 
 " The people make awful mistakes," she remarked 
 to a friend, " as they did in the French Revolution ; 
 but look at the provocation the French had. It is 
 the business of American patriots to anticipate evils 
 sure to accrue if the problem of capital and labor 
 is not solved with absolute justice to both. The fact 
 is," Kate continued, " if everybody followed the 
 golden rule there would be no trouble in this world; 
 but up-to-date Christianity has failed to make Chris- 
 tians. Perhaps there may be a new dispensation with 
 the dawn of the Twentieth Century." 
 
 Constantly, unremittingly, Kate wrote, lectured, 
 and pleaded in all ways and at all times, for better 
 conditions for humanity. Her vein of 'sarcasm was 
 sometimes aroused, as when a New York man who 
 aspired to be the Beau Brummel of his time produced 
 a book on etiquette, and Miss Field thus held it up to 
 ridicule : — 
 
 " Do you know the latest fashion in gentlemen ? Apropos 
 of good manners, Mr. has written a book that will en- 
 lighten two continents next autumn. Meanwhile, society 
 is groping about with the aid of tallow candles — this is 
 metaphor — and occasional hints dropped by this authority 
 as to what constitutes a gentleman. Evidently Christianity 
 is all wrong. Its Founder would certainly be cut were he 
 to walk up Fifth Avenue — that is, if ' a very accomplished 
 
 leader of the german,' quoted by Mr. , represents 
 
 anybody but himself. This leader, who is ' one of our 
 most fashionable men,' is said to have declared that he 
 would cut his own grandmother on the street if she were 
 shabbily dressed. We must get up a new kind of New 
 Testament. Our old one is evidently out of date. No 
 
Kate Field's Washington 481 
 
 good Samaritan must offer anybody's grandmother a cup of 
 water or a helping hand unless that grandmother be dressed 
 ' according to Hoyle.' We shall next be graduating our 
 bows according to dressmakers and tailors. 
 
 " ' Here comes a Worth gown ! ' Off with your hats, 
 down with your heads ! So much for style ! 
 
 " ' Here 's a last year's Knox ! ' A frigid nod of dis- 
 approval. 
 
 " How delightful a prospect ! 
 
 " When a man cannot afford to speak or be spoken to by 
 any one, there must be something dubious about him. To 
 fear the criticism of his own ' friends,' if caught with in- 
 feriors in dress or position, shows the quality of the birds 
 with whom he flocks. ' What makes you wear such a 
 shocking bad hat ? ' asked a friend of a rich man visiting 
 New York. 'Why not?' replied the millionaire. 'My 
 friends know I can afford a better, and those who don't 
 know me don't care.' That man is most truly a gentle- 
 men who, well dressed himself, as should be every person 
 of taste, has too good a heart to be more afraid of the 
 criticism of friends than of his own conscience. Such a 
 man of fashion as Mr. — ^ — depicts is only fit for production 
 in a so-called American comedy, — to be laughed at one 
 moment and forgotten the next." 
 
 Miss Field's life touched the greatest variety of 
 interests. Societies, conventions, and military posts 
 recognized her work. The George Maxwell Post of 
 the G. A. R., Utah, passed this resolution: — 
 
 Resolved: That we truly appreciate the fervent patrio- 
 tism of Miss Kate Field of Washington, D. C, and that a 
 vote of thanks of this Post is hereby extended to her, for 
 her noble efforts in behalf of the old soldiers, their widows 
 
 3t 
 
482 Kate Field 
 
 and orphans ; that the same be published in the Salt Lake 
 "Tribune," and a copy sent to Miss Field. 
 
 S. EwiNG, Post Commander. 
 
 Wherever she travelled, receptions were constantly 
 given to her by the most prominent people, and she 
 was probably more in personal touch with the signi- 
 ficant forces of the day than any other woman of the 
 time, not even excepting the noble Frances Willard, 
 whose work was concentrated more entirely in one 
 especial line. 
 
 The following autumn found Miss Field lecturing 
 again; and while visiting her friends Governor and 
 Mrs. Campbell in Columbus, Ohio, she expressed 
 a desire to attend the Chapel services on Sunday. 
 Accordingly the Governor and his family accom- 
 panied her, and the prisoners, on learning that the 
 visitor was the distinguished lecturer, petitioned that 
 she should address them. Not to have responded to 
 any appeal for the unfortunate would not have been 
 possible to Kate Field. She at once consented, and 
 out of her repertoire chose her delightful lecture on 
 " Charles Dickens," prefacing it with some such 
 remarks as these: " Our chaplain this morning bade 
 us stop and think, I stopped and thought that under 
 similar circumstances I 'd be where you are. I stopped 
 and thought that were I in your place I should not 
 like to be shut up in a cell all Sunday, and so I have 
 come to help you pass a pleasant hour with Charles 
 Dickens, your old friend." 
 
 The effect of the sincere and earnest sympathy on 
 the prisoners was very marked, and perhaps never 
 did Miss Field lecture to a m.ore responsive audience. 
 In the lecture she recited Dickens's " Hymn to the 
 
Kate Field's Washington 483 
 
 Wiltshire Laborers," to which her vibrant and ex- 
 quisitely modulated voice lent new beauty. 
 
 On her return to Washington Miss Field sent six- 
 teen hundred copies of her journal to the prisoners, 
 which were distributed by the Governor, who grate- 
 fully thanked her on their behalf. 
 
 Kate Field's religious feeling was always revealed 
 in such practical forms as -this. Her religion was of 
 deeds, and her comparison of sentiment and action is 
 indicated in a private letter under date of April 16, 
 1892, when she wrote to a friend: — 
 
 . . . "Though Easter means no more to me than any 
 other time of year, I appreciate true religious fervor, and 
 I believe in love and affection day in and day out. Thank 
 you for the poem so full of noblest wishes. I try to do well 
 what comes to me : I try to consider those in trouble and 
 to forget myself as much as a grim fate will permit. If 
 peace comes I shall be thankful. It has not perched on 
 my banner as a rule. May the Easter mean sunshine to 
 you." . . . 
 
 Out of Kate's close study of political affairs in the 
 heart of the nation she wrote a notable editorial 
 article headed "America for Americans." In it she 
 discussed the immigration problem, and of this able 
 paper Rear- Admiral Jouett wrote to her: — 
 
 Personal 
 1349 L Street, Washington, D. C, March 30, 1891. 
 Dear Miss Field, — I have read with deep satisfaction 
 and pleasure your article " America for Americans." It's 
 the one bold, fearless, and just article that I have read upon 
 the New Orleans tragedy. That article should voice the 
 entire American people ; it should be read at every Ameri- 
 
484 Kate Field 
 
 can fireside, and upon all public occasions. I am glad that 
 you have come to the rescue of the American Flag as well 
 as the American people. 
 
 Your article has made me a subscriber to your loyal 
 and valuable paper. May all America read that article 
 understandingly and act upon it, is the hope and the 
 prayer of. 
 
 Yours most respectfully, 
 
 James E. Jouett, 
 Rear- Admiral U. S. Navy. 
 
 Among the innumerable expressions of interest in 
 her new work that Miss Field received, were these 
 words in a letter from Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge, the 
 brilliant editor of " St. Nicholas," under date of Feb. 
 25, 1890: — 
 
 " I wish ' Kate Field's Washington ' and its editor success. 
 Every number I have taken up, so far, has interested me. 
 I am sure to find there something that I like to know, and 
 that I cannot find in other papers. 
 
 " It has, too, a dual quality of earnestness and brilliancy 
 that arrests attention, in some way suggesting that queer 
 feeling one has in noting the identity of spelling and wide 
 divergence of effect, in the words Ma?i's laughter — so 
 cheery and inspiring — and Manslaughter — depressing and 
 dire ! " 
 
 " Kate Field's Washington " gave attention to a 
 great number of widely diverging interests all over the 
 country, — a fact largely due to the extensive per- 
 sonal acquaintance that Miss Field had acquired in 
 her lecturing tour from 1869-71, as a young girl, and 
 her later lecturing life from 1882-90. She had come 
 into singularly close local and personal touch with 
 
Kate Field's Washington 485 
 
 the people. In Minneapolis she had often been the 
 guest of Hon. and Mrs. Thomas F. Lowry, and had 
 met and known a great number of the citizens, and in 
 behalf of the Business Union in that City the follow- 
 ing letter reached her : — 
 
 Miss Kate Field, Editor " Kate Field's Washington," 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 Dear Madam, — At a final meeting of the Minneapolis 
 Harvest Festival Committee held this a. m. in the Masonic 
 Temple, it was the unanimous sense of the gentlemen pres- 
 ent that a vote of thanks be extended to you for the kindly 
 interest you have shown in various ways, in the city of Min- 
 neapolis and the Harvest Festival. 
 
 The many words of praise which you have given expres- 
 sion to have endeared yourself to our citizens, so that you 
 will be kindly remembered and these words of ours will but 
 faintly express their appreciation of the same. Wishing 
 you the greatest success with your valuable magazine, and 
 expressing a hope that you may favor this city with an- 
 other visit, when convenient, we are yours with very great 
 respect. 
 
 Geo. a. Brackett, Chairman. 
 F. H. Forbes, Secretary. 
 
 Thus, in her "Washington," she discussed edu- 
 cational and mining interests in Alaska; internal 
 improvements in California; the Hawaiian problem, 
 which then began to appear; labor interests, art fa- 
 cilities for the West, the desirability of a National 
 Conservatory of Music, and every important matter 
 of the day in thought and event. 
 
 In this spring of 1892, Miss Field added to her 
 distinctive work of having influenced better legisla- 
 tion for Utah the signal work of securing the removal 
 
486 Kate Field 
 
 of the thirty per cent tax on paintings and statuary. 
 This tax had proved to be disastrous in its results. 
 Duties fell from $307,000 in '^i to $191,000 in '84, a 
 decline of forty per cent, while general trade only 
 fell seven per cent, and jewels advanced. 
 
 The sales of American artists decreased ; the de- 
 mands for American art lessened. The export of 
 paintings amounted to $387,000 in '83, and fell to 
 $176,000 in '84. Foreign nations remonstrated, as 
 well they might, for in Italy, France, Germany, and 
 Russia, art is free ; while in all other countries, except 
 Servia and those speaking Spanish, it is taxed only 
 eight per cent. 
 
 Miss Field went before the Congressional Commit- 
 tee on Ways and Means on March 27, 1892, to plead 
 for the abolition of the tax. In part her argument 
 was : — 
 
 " Keeping out foreign art decreases popular interest in art, 
 deprives home artists of inspiration, and renders their work 
 less valuable and less profitable. To claim that this tax 
 falls solely on the rich is to ignore artists, who are, as a 
 class, poor. It is to forget the people who are dependent 
 upon public sales, exhibitions, and museums for their knowl- 
 edge of the beautiful, whereby they become better educated 
 and consequently make better citizens. Not only this, but 
 it is to forget all artisans who are prevented from attaining 
 a high standard of work in many industries. 
 
 " Not the least objectionable feature of this outrageous 
 tariff is the resentment it inspires in foreign artists, and the 
 difficult position in which our own art students abroad are 
 thereby placed." 
 
 Twelve hours after her return from the Capitol she 
 received this note : — 
 
Kate Field's Washington 487 
 
 House of Representatives, Washington. 
 Dear Miss Field, — Governor Gear and myself were 
 authorized to inform you that, after your eloquent plea, the 
 committee unanimously voted to place art on 'fXitfree list. 
 The Governor wishes to join with me in congratulations. 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Sereno E. Payne. 
 
 The McKinley bill then passed the House without 
 a moment's discussion about this art clause, although 
 the Senate restored the entire tax, but finally com- 
 promised on fifteen per cent. This success incited 
 Miss Field to endeavor to found a National Art 
 Association ; and in May of that spring, an Art Con- 
 gress, due to her own efforts, convened in Washington, 
 and a loan exhibition of pictures was given in the 
 Chapel of the Smithsonian Institution from May 18 
 to 27 inclusive, representing such artists as John S. 
 Sargent, Abbey, Boughton, Cecilia Beaux, George 
 Fuller, Edward Simmons, Vedder, St. Gaudens, 
 McMonnies, Picknell, Bierstadt, Hunt, and Inness. 
 
 Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman wrote to Miss Field 
 under date of May 26, 1892 : — 
 
 " If ' Kate Field's Washington ' were not (as it is) the 
 brightest weekly that comes to us, your success in reduc- 
 ing the art duties would have been its sufficient excuse for 
 being. 
 
 " I say success, because such revolutions don't go back- 
 ward. Your next campaign against the tariff on foreign 
 paintings will 'reform it altogether.' 
 
 " A next winter's Art Congress seems to me one of your 
 own specific, inventive ideas. Yes, and I should add, 
 inclusive. Perhaps it is just as well that a Government 
 ' Commission of Art and Architecture ' should have been 
 
488 Kate Field 
 
 deferred until now. We used to deprecate the ramshackle 
 structure of our buildings. Now we see that it was as well 
 that they were made so that they could readily be pulled 
 down when we should learn how to combine architectural 
 strength and beauty. I think that a Government Commis- 
 sion now would include architects, sculptors, painters, etc., 
 upon whose judgments we could rest secure. 
 
 " Our governmental theory is not paternal. But the influ- 
 ence of those high in its administration is unquestionable. 
 The open support given to our copyright movement by the 
 President and Mrs. Cleveland was the omen of its speedy 
 triumph. The White House now can do much for American 
 art. A National Loan Exhibition will do even more, as 
 the conspicuous preamble to the Art Exposition of '93. 
 Go on, and open the eyes of our people to the fidelity and 
 beauty of our native landscape school ; to the fact that such 
 a school exists, that we have painters of our skies and woods 
 and waters as faithful and luminous as those whose canvases 
 reach us (and still teach us) from abroad. Do justice, too, 
 to our brilliant rising school of portraiture. Again, what 
 foreign artists equal ours in drawing, on the wood or other- 
 wise, for illustration? Where are architects of town fa9ades 
 and of country houses more ingenious and tasteful, at this 
 moment, than in these States both east and west? " 
 
 Rev. Dr. Phillips Brooks wrote thus : — 
 
 Boston, 232 Clarendon Street, May 17, 1892. 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — I am in the heartiest sympathy 
 with the purposes of your National Art Association, and I 
 wish sincerely that it were possible for me to be present at 
 its meeting, which occurs to-day. I am sorry that I cannot 
 do so. 
 
 I am sorry, also, that I have not been able to send you 
 before this the assurance of my cordial sympathy and my 
 
Kate Field's Washington 489 
 
 sincere hope for the best success of your efforts in the 
 good work which you have in hand. Pray believe me, 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Phillips Brooks. 
 
 The distinguished Catholic prelate, His Eminence, 
 Cardinal Gibbons, wrote : — 
 
 My deas Madam, — In reply to your favor I beg to say 
 that I am in favor of free art, which you are so earnestly 
 espousing, or at least of a great reduction of the tariff. 
 
 It is only by bringing foreign works of art into compe- 
 tition with our own that we fully recognize our shortcomings 
 and that we are aroused to emulation. 
 
 I am willing to join the association. I regret that my 
 engagements will not permit me to attend your convention 
 on Tuesday. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 James, Cardinal Gibbons. 
 
 Desiring to enlist the interest of Dr. Depew, Kate 
 
 wrote to him of the proposed art association, to which 
 
 he replied : — 
 
 New York, Feb. i, 1892. 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — Thanks for the very unique and 
 artistic water jar which came to me from you this morning. 
 It has been the wonder and admiration of all the antiqua- 
 ries in this neighborhood. 
 
 I shall be very happy to see you any morning you may 
 have the leisure to call at my office between ten and 
 eleven o'clock. Yours very truly, 
 
 Chauncey M. Depew. 
 Miss Kate Field. 
 
 Mr. Eastman Johnson wrote : — 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — I have delayed acknowledging 
 your note till I could see some one of the Library Com- 
 
490 Kate Field 
 
 mittee of the Century Club, which I have been unable to 
 do until to-night, when I straightened out the matter of 
 having your paper on our tables. 
 
 I had the good luck to see Stedman to-night as he was 
 going to the Committee meeting, and told him what must 
 be done. He said, " Certainly ; by all means. I take it 
 myself and send it to others. It shall be done." I saw 
 him after the meeting and he said it had been done. So 
 we shall now sell your paper, and Stedman is your friend, 
 and whoever is his friend is not without a blessing. 
 
 Thanks for your words about Cleveland, or the portrait. 
 It will go to Washington in a few days. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Eastman Johnson. 
 
 I cannot lay my hands on your note, but this will reach 
 you. E. J. 
 
 Mrs. Harrison was " the first lady of the land " at 
 this time, and she entered sympathetically into the 
 interests of the Congress, and would have given a 
 reception for artists the previous year but for the 
 reasons explained in this note from Private Secre- 
 tary Halford to Miss Field : — 
 
 Executive Mansion, Washington, Feb. 7, 1891. 
 Miss Kate Field, 
 
 "The Shoreham." 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — I have tried for two or three 
 days to see you, but Providence and Kate Field have in- 
 terfered. I want to talk with you about the proposed 
 reception and the necessary effect which the death of 
 Secretary Windom would have upon it. Of course, it would 
 not be possible to hold it this month under the circum- 
 stances, and that would drive it altogether too late to be of 
 any value in view of the adjournment of Congress. I have 
 talked over the matter with Mrs. Harrison, and it seems to 
 
Kate Field's Washington 491 
 
 me, and to her as well, that the best thing to do would be 
 to arrange that it should be the first event of next season, 
 immediately after the assembling of Congress, when the 
 season will be young and vigorous, and the proposed con- 
 ference and reception can be made the success that I know 
 is in your heart and mind to have it. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 E. W. Halford, Private Secretary. 
 
 Numbers of letters bearing the address " Executive 
 Mansion " from the private secretaries of both Presi- 
 dent Harrison and President Cleveland, and occa- 
 sional autograph notes from some member of the 
 President's family, are among Miss Field's voluminous 
 correspondence. 
 
 Two letters from George William Curtis are as 
 follows : — 
 
 West New Brighton, 
 Staten Island, N. J., Feb. 23, 1890. 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — I am very much obliged to you 
 for your note and for the copies of your paper. I am too 
 good a newspaper man, however, not to have seen them 
 already and to have admired the energy and courage and 
 journalistic instinct which they display, and also to wish 
 your " Washington " and you success. But I am so con- 
 stantly interviewing myself in the form of editorial articles 
 upon the subjects that you mention and all others of cur- 
 rent public interest, that I am very much disinclined to 
 warm them over in formal interviews. So you will under- 
 stand that while I am fully conscious of the honor that 
 you propose to me, I must put the crown aside. With the 
 sincerest thanks and good wishes, I am. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 George William Curtis. 
 
492 Kate Field 
 
 Again Mr. Curtis writes: — 
 
 West New Brighton, 
 Staten Island, N. Y., May 13, 1892. 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — He must be an eccentric Ameri- 
 can who could decline to join an association which asks no 
 fees and requires only firm faith in free art. Upon that 
 basis I accept gladly your invitation to become a member, 
 feeling myself to be thoroughly qualified. Many provisions 
 of the tariff may be wrong and unjust, but the tax on foreign 
 works of art is chiefly grotesque. A prohibitory tariff upon 
 the works of Raphael and Giorgione would not produce 
 Raphaels and Giorgiones, and its effect would be not to 
 compel us to buy American pictures, but to deprive Ameri- 
 can artists and lovers of art of the inestimable advantage of 
 familiarity with great works. The New York " Tribune " is 
 a protection journal, but as a protectionist it very properly 
 opposes the duty on works of art, because the genius that 
 can produce such work will not be fostered by such exclu- 
 sion. When artists themselves, for whose benefit the duty 
 is said to be laid, and the great body of intelligent citizens, 
 whether advocates of protection or of revenue duties, unite 
 to demand the free entry of works of art, the member of 
 Congress who hesitates challenges us to take candles, with 
 Charles Lamb, to examine his bumps. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 George William Curtis. 
 
 Miss Sarah Freeman Clarke, a sister of James 
 Freeman Clarke, also reveals her interest in another 
 cause which had awakened Miss Field's energies : 
 
 My dear Kate Field, — I rejoice in your vigorous 
 efforts in behalf of civilization and against barbarism in try- 
 ing to avert the destruction of the beautiful architecture of 
 Jackson Park. 
 
Kate Field's Washington 493 
 
 " For out of thought's interior sphere 
 These wonders rose to upper air.'' 
 
 As Emerson says of the Parthenon and Pyramids, and 
 though we cannot hope to continue the quotation and say 
 with him, 
 
 " And nature kindly gave them places, 
 Adopted them into her races, 
 And granted them an equal date 
 With Andes and with Ararat," 
 
 yet to see them destroyed within a year of their comple- 
 tion is too monstrous an outrage to be silently endured. 
 The Parks belong to the people of Chicago, will they not 
 try to protect their own interest by ordering their commis- 
 sioners, their servants, to release the other party of their 
 share in the insane contract by which desolation will be 
 restored and beauty and value destroyed, a contract worthy 
 of savages? I am but one unit of the millions who have 
 not seen these wonders of the nineteenth century's end. 
 If you succeed in your righteous efforts, next year will see 
 a stream of pilgrims flowing through Chicago, enriching it 
 with money, embellishing it with praise, and this will con- 
 tinue as long as the buildings last ; and that you may suc- 
 ceed is the earnest wish of your friend, 
 
 Sarah Freeman Clarke. 
 November 25, 1893. 
 
 When Miss Field championed the cause of inter- 
 national copyright, her work brought her a shower 
 of interesting letters of which the following are 
 typical : — 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — I have nothing to add to my re- 
 corded opinion of the dishonesty of stealing the products 
 of the labor of the soft-handed sons of toil. I cannot see 
 that a callus on the palm confers any better claim to fair 
 
494 Kate Field 
 
 treatment than a furrow in the forehead and an aching in 
 the brain. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 Boston, May 15, 1890. 
 
 Mr. Lowell wrote: — 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — I have had too long an experience 
 of the providential thickness of the human skull, as well as 
 of the eventual success of all reasonable reforms, to be dis- 
 couraged by the temporary defeat of any measure which I 
 believe to be sound. I say "providential" because the 
 world is thereby saved many a rash experiment in specious 
 legislation. Were it otherwise, the Huon's horn of incon- 
 siderate enthusiasm would lead us a pretty dance among 
 the briars. Unfortunately there is, as usual, an exception 
 to this general rule, for the sutures of the political cranium 
 are so loosely knit as to leave a crevice through which con- 
 siderations of ephemeral expediency find too easy entrance. 
 Such considerations, it should always be remembered, are 
 most liable to disastrous recoil. 
 
 I grant that our hope has been long drawn out, but since 
 material for it (as for every hope that has a moral care) has 
 been constantly supplied, it has never become too attenu- 
 ated to bear the strain put upon it. 
 
 J. R. Lowell. 
 Cambridge, Mass., May 15, 1890. 
 
 When the good and great Mrs. Hemenway died, 
 the Boston philanthropist, Mr. Frank Gushing of 
 Zuni fame thus wrote to Miss Field in reference to 
 her tribute to Mrs. Hemenway : — 
 
 God bless you, my dear Miss Kate Field, for saying that 
 beautiful word about Mrs. Hemenway in connection with 
 your " Personal " relative to myself. You deserve every 
 
Kate Field's Washington 495 
 
 good for your good, and in one way or another you will get 
 it, as surely as you shall have my gratitude and gladness of 
 friendship. Ever truly, 
 
 Frank Gushing. 
 
 When the African explorer, Mr. Stanley, came to 
 America with his laurels still green, Rev. Dr. Hun- 
 tington of Grace Church, New York, thus referred to 
 him in a letter to Miss Field : — 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — I am bidden to dine with the 
 African Lion Stanley, a professional feed which I must at- 
 tend to, so shall not be able to reach Hotel Chatham so 
 early as I was hoping for your good company to the con- 
 cert — if they don't rain. I breakfasted this morning with 
 Colonel M. C. Kaye, whereby his pretty French wife began 
 asking me if I knew who was Miss Kate Field ? She has 
 been reading your letters from . . . diligently and admir- 
 ingly. She speaks pretty English, not broken, but chopped 
 a little, that it is a pleasure to listen. The Colonel wanted 
 to make your acquaintance, but I told him it was too late, 
 by reason of your immediate departure. Barker (Dr.) 
 will be at Brunswick Hotel, Jermyn Street, London, after 
 next Wednesday. 
 
 Is THIS PLAIN NOW? 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 W. H. Huntington. 
 And it looks like poetry for all the world. 
 
 Senator and Mrs. William Chandler of New Hamp- 
 shire were among the nearer friends of Miss Field, 
 who greatly appreciated them. Mrs. Chandler (the 
 daughter of Senator Hale) is one of the notable 
 women of the age, and her keen intellect and fine 
 culture have always given to her a distinctive place in 
 Washington's diplomatic life. Mr. and Mrs. Charles 
 
49^ Kate Field 
 
 M. Ffoulke, Senator and Mrs. Brice, Mrs. Hearst, 
 Chief Justice and Mrs. Fuller, and Prof. Charles 
 Warren Stoddard were also among her most prized 
 friends in Washington. A playful note from Pro- 
 fessor Stoddard thus runs : — 
 
 The Catholic University of America, 
 Washington, D. C, May 12, 1891. 
 My "Bonnie Kate," — Did you and your clever friend 
 get home in safety? I hope to heaven you did, for I en- 
 joyed the visit beyond expression, and I hate to think you 
 ran a risk in making me so Happy. 
 
 I am reading your " Ten Days in Spain." Oh, it is deh- 
 cious beyond expression. Addio, in haste. 
 
 Thine evermore, C. W. S. 
 
 This intense and many-sided life w^ore on Miss 
 Field to a degree that, in the spring of 1893, began 
 to be very perceptible. Her energy was indomitable, 
 and she cultivated cheerfulness to the degree of as- 
 suming that virtue, whether she had it or not; but 
 there were undercurrents of depression only revealed, 
 and even then very seldom revealed, to those nearest 
 to her. In one letter to a friend who was watching 
 her unceasing work with solicitude that would some- 
 times express itself, she wrote : — 
 
 " If impulse could produce letters, you would have re- 
 ceived an Easter Greeting at date ; but I 'm so tired. It 
 was sweet of you to send me that beautiful souvenir of two 
 good men, — James Freeman Clarke and PhiUips Brooks, — ■ 
 sweetest of all to know that you think of me, as the lines in 
 the poem attest. I have no offering in return but the best 
 wishes of my heart for you here and beyond. I wish I 
 were spiritual. I wish I knew what all this struggle means. 
 I am groping in the dark, and I often wish it were all over. 
 . . . Pax vo bis cum." 
 
Kate Field's Washington 497 
 
 The Columbian Exposition of 1893 enlisted Miss 
 Field's enthusiasm, and gave to her a summer of 
 special interest. While she had first hoped that 
 Washington would be chosen for its site, she recog- 
 nized the greater advantages of Chicago, with its 
 beautiful lake and vast resources ; and from its opening 
 in May until after its close in November she remained 
 in that city at the Lexington Hotel on Michigan Boule- 
 vard, and she made herself a factor in its progress in 
 a valuable way that won cosmopolitan recognition. 
 For a year before its opening she was working to for- 
 ward its interests, and her journal was somewhat re- 
 lied upon by the women officials, as the following 
 note from Mrs. Potter Palmer indicates : — 
 
 Office of the President, 
 
 Board of Lady Managers, 
 
 World's Columbian Exposition, 
 Chicago, III., March 18, 1892. 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — Your note of March 13 is 
 received, and I am greatly obliged for the accompanying 
 clipping from "Kate Field's Washington." 
 
 I have read your kind words with much interest, and feel 
 that your efforts in our behalf will be productive of the best 
 results. 
 
 With renewed thanks for your courtesy, and regret that I 
 did not have the pleasure of meeting you while in Wash- 
 ington, I am. 
 
 Most cordially yours, 
 
 Bertha M. H. Palmer, Pres. B. L. M. 
 Miss Kate Field, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Reading an open letter which Miss Field wrote to 
 the Directors of the Columbian Exposition, an emi- 
 nent member of the Board wrote to her, under date 
 of July, 1893, "Your ideas are good and to the point, 
 
 32 
 
498 Kate Field 
 
 and we shall profit by them." Maintaining all through 
 the Exposition a syndicate weekly press correspond- 
 ence, she also edited her own paper, wrote dozens 
 of special articles on art, inventions, education, and 
 affairs, and seldom missed a day or evening from the 
 White City, in whose beauty she revelled. In her 
 press letters she urged upon railroad ofificials the pol- 
 icy of reduced rates for the people ; she urged upon 
 the people to come to the Exposition. " It is a sin 
 against humanity," she said, " that twenty trains a day 
 are not carrying twenty thousand on each train to 
 Jackson Park." 
 
 Again she wrote : — 
 
 " The more I see of the Dream City that has been wrought 
 out of brain, and muscle, and iron, and wood ; and that 
 wonderful staff, which, so far as concerns the Exposition, 
 may truly be called the staff of life, the more I want it made 
 possible for every man, woman, and child in the United 
 States to come and praise God for the divine revelations of 
 Jackson Park. 
 
 " Never before has the divinity of man been so power- 
 fully demonstrated, and from my point of view it is the 
 solemn duty of every one whose eyes have seen this glory 
 of the coming of the Lord to labor unceasingly toward bring- 
 ing our people within reach of the beneficent spectacle." 
 
 Miss Field's criticism of the noble music given 
 under the never-to-be-forgotten organization of Theo- 
 dore Thomas was a notable contribution to the litera- 
 ture of musical art. 
 
 Everywhere was her presence welcomed. She was 
 in demand for the Ethnological Building, in whose 
 exhibition she took such intelligent interest; in 
 the Electrical; in the representative buildings of the 
 
Kate Field's Washington 499 
 
 various States ; and her perfect command of the 
 French and Italian languages made her an especially- 
 sought guest among foreign visitors. The beautiful 
 language of Spain always appealed to her, and she 
 spoke a little Spanish and read it still better ; while in 
 Spanish music she was an accomplished performer. 
 
 One evening, whose poetic charm must always 
 linger in the memory of all who were present, was 
 when a group of friends met in Cairo, — not on the 
 Nile, but in the Midway Plaisance, — where they were 
 bestowed in a seventeenth-century house, beautiful 
 beyond words in its antique decoration, its huge 
 divans, latticed window coverings, and Oriental deco- 
 ration in every way. Miss Field consented to read to 
 the merry group one of her recent editorial papers in 
 " Kate Field's Washington," called "A Door in Cairo," 
 telling a story full of charm and interest. The scene 
 of the reading was one to record itself in memory. 
 The company were in an interior of old Egyptian 
 architecture. The decorations and furnishing were 
 all in the rich Oriental style. The subdued brilliancy 
 of the lights shone down on they?« du .y/^c/^ journal- 
 ists sitting on divans on the floor, in window seats, or 
 otherwise informally bestowed. In the latticed win- 
 dow, where a few were sitting, a panel was open, and 
 the silver radiance of the full moon sailing through a 
 cloudless blue sky shone in. Under the casement a 
 group of Arabs and Egyptians were singing strange 
 songs. A side-light fell on the graceful figure of Kate 
 Field, revealing her pretty hands as she held her pa- 
 per, and every one listened intently to the fascinating 
 sketch that she read. From a seat in the latticed 
 window where a troubadour might have played the 
 lute, one or two of the group watched the romantic 
 
500 Kate Field 
 
 scene. Madame Korany of Syria — impulsive, im- 
 passioned, and fascinating, speaking English almost 
 like a native, strong and swift in her likes and dislikes 
 — ■ sat near. And at midnight the party sauntered 
 homeward through the half-deserted Plaisance, with 
 the strange mixture of foreign races, — with its strains 
 of music and snatches of song, — on, on, away from 
 the enchanting White City, lying under the white 
 radiance of a full moon, to the prosaic steam-cars, 
 which whirled them back to Chicago in eighteen 
 minutes, the journey being on the shore of the lake, 
 rippling and dancing under the flood of magic moon- 
 light. And so the days and nights ran on, — those 
 enchanted Chicago days of the Exposition. 
 
 One special achievement of Miss Field's during 
 this summer was the organizing of a Labor Bureau 
 that was of some practical assistance to laboring 
 men. 
 
 Lady Dilke of London (whom the readers of this 
 Record will recall as one of Miss Field's early friends, 
 under the name of Mrs. Mark Pattison) sent a paper 
 to the Labor Congress on the working women of 
 England, with the request that Miss Field should 
 read it. At this assembly Kate met several of 
 the well-known leaders of the Labor movement, 
 and they invited her to address them at another 
 meeting soon to be called. She did so, and, grow- 
 ing more intimately and intelligently in sympathy 
 with the true interests of the working man, she orig- 
 inated the plan of Labor Bureaus, and editorially she 
 said : — 
 
 "If I had a $1,000,000 to give away I would found a 
 Labor Bureau with branches in a dozen or more populous 
 towns. I would bid men and women in search of work to 
 
Kate Field's Washington 501 
 
 apply to the bureau. When my experiment became a solid 
 success, I would appeal to rich men and women to spread the 
 blessed gospel of help. This is the way to arrest congestion 
 of labor in crowded centres. There 's work enough for 
 everybody, if properly distributed. It is a crime that a 
 national bureau such as I suggest does not now exist. 
 There is a Labor Commissioner at Washington who gathers 
 statistics, but for any relief of misery and a glutted market 
 he might as well not be born. What we need is Labor in 
 the Cabinet and such a series of national bureaus as I have 
 indicated. Then the brotherhood of man would cease to 
 be a dream." 
 
 Of this scheme Dr. Chauncey Depew said, " It is 
 feasible," although he urged the substitution of pri\'ate 
 beneficence for national legislation ; and in explana- 
 tion of his idea Dr. Depew said : — 
 
 " I will tell you what would be possible and a practical 
 work of the highest beneficence. Millions are constantly 
 being donated for hospitals and educational institutions. 
 One takes care of the wounded and the other recruits the 
 ranks already crowded. If some philanthropist would con- 
 centrate his capital upon a labor bureau whose purpose 
 should be to find employment, it could perform incalculable 
 service." 
 
 To which Miss Field replied : — 
 
 " I fail to see why a Congress that is equal to regulating 
 the army, navy, foreign affairs, the treasury, and agriculture 
 should not concern itself with the welfare of the masses 
 upon whom depends the very existence of the republic. 
 There should be no more difficulty in establishing a cordon 
 of labor bureaus than in establishing custom-houses and 
 post-ofSces, — in fact, not nearly as much. Look at the 
 beneficence of the Signal Service Burea^ ! Look at the 
 
502 Kate Field 
 
 daily reports of the markets ! Are conditions of the weather, 
 of hog and hominy, and of wheat and whisky more impor- 
 tant to the human race than the industrial condition of men, 
 women, and children?" 
 
 Regarding some form of relief for labor, Kate Field 
 was deeply concerned. " What sort of civilization 
 have we," she exclaimed, " that so sports with flesh 
 and blood? Where is the evidence of a practical 
 Christianity in this wicked disregard of human neces- 
 sities? Where is that love of one's neighbor which 
 is the watchword of Christ? Can nothing be done 
 to make such misery impossible?" 
 
 One of the many unique features of that Exposition 
 summer was the mass meeting in three sessions, 
 morning, afternoon, and evening, called by Mr. Stead 
 one Sunday in Central Music Hall. Miss Field 
 attended each meeting, responded to an invitation to 
 speak in the evening, and of it, and the unique per- 
 sonality of Mr. Stead, she wrote: — 
 
 " Mr. Stead has a strong individuality. There are no 
 two ways about that. He is every inch himself. His talk, 
 walk, manner, actions, are sui generis. His voice is agree- 
 able in tone, sufficiently powerful to be heard in large halls, 
 his enunciation is distinct, and he gives the impression of 
 earnestness. He is accused of aiming at sensationalism. 
 Whether this criticism is just or false, I don't know. This 
 I do know, — that sensation moves humanity, and until it is 
 created there can be no progress in any direction. If sen- 
 sationalism be Mr. Stead's way of attracting public atten- 
 tion to great evils, Mr. Stead is so far wise in his generation. 
 I do know that this unique Englishman lacks tact, grace, 
 and many qualities needed in an ideal Chairman; but I 
 also know that he ' got there ' last Sunday. 
 
Kate Field's Washington 503 
 
 " Deeply interested in Mr. Stead's address in the after- 
 noon because of its sympathy with our strugghng masses, I 
 went again to Central Music Hall Sunday night to learn what 
 would be proposed to better their condition. So densely 
 packed was the auditorium as to force me to seek refuge 
 on the platform, where I otherwise should not have been. 
 Thus it is that accident makes us actors in many an unex- 
 pected drama. At this second meeting Mr. Stead was his 
 own Chairman. He was not satisfied with the Chairman 
 of the afternoon, knew best what he wanted, and proposed 
 to attain his purpose. We all like courage. 
 
 " The very audacity of Mr. Stead commanded admiration. 
 He did his own praying, delivered his own benediction, 
 did his own thinking, quickly shut off speakers who rambled, 
 and snubbed those who introduced dynamite, religion, and 
 politics. He rambled himself, was at times inconsequent 
 and intolerant, displayed weak spots in his armor, but he 
 accomplished something before the night was over. A 
 great audience sat eagerly from 7.30 until 1 1 o'clock lis- 
 tening, for the most part with approbation, to remarks 
 from the Chairman and various speakers. That audience 
 did not go home until it was resolved with only three dis- 
 senting voices that the formation of a civic federation for 
 public welfare was eminently feasible, and that a committee 
 named then and there should meet to appoint a committee 
 ■of twenty-one to begin work. 
 
 " Call Mr. Stead what you please, he has planted good 
 seed. Let the proposed civic federation take root in the 
 Western metropolis, and I prophesy that its branches will 
 extend throughout the republic to the glory of Christ and 
 the redemption of humanity. There is nothing Utopian 
 about it. If after professing Christianity for eighteen hun- 
 dred years, earnest men and women of different trades 
 and professiens'cannot unite on the broad platform of the 
 golden rule and set to work cleaning out such an Augean 
 
504 Kate Field 
 
 stable as Hercules never conceived, the ' heathen ' left 
 over from the parhament of religions can truthfully say that 
 the pretended followers of Jesus have not yet learned the 
 alphabet of their professed faith." 
 
 During this summer Miss Field became fully con- 
 vinced of the necessity for the political enfranchise- 
 ment of women, and the formal " laying on of hands," 
 so to speak, adopting her into the woman suffrage 
 ranks, came in this letter from Mrs. Lucy Stone: — 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — I want to congratulate you and 
 the suffrage cause on your frankly avowed accession to it. 
 It is rather bold for me to do this, all the same I do it. I 
 cannot tell you how gladly. 
 
 The movement has reached a point now where women 
 like yourself will be wings to it, and this will make parties 
 in power glad to make friends by being just to those who 
 may be valuable allies. Again congratulating you, I am, 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Lucy Stone. 
 
 An undated letter from Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stan- 
 ton alludes, presumably, to this newly-proclaimed 
 attitude of Miss Field's. 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — It has given me great pleasure to 
 see the flattering notices of you in the press. 
 
 I always feel elated with each new achievement of my 
 sex, for whatever one does well reflects glory on all the 
 rest. 
 
 May we not see and hear you at our coming anniversary, 
 which promises to be all we could desire in numbers, 
 quality, and interest? 
 
 With kind regards, 
 
 Elizabeth Cady Stanton. 
 
Kate Field's Washington 505 
 
 Miss Susan B. Anthony gave to Miss Field a warm 
 personal greeting, on a public platform, one day, 
 before one of the Congresses of the Exposition, and 
 the always cordial relations between the elder and 
 the younger woman were still more firmly established. 
 Miss Field had always shared in the deep affection 
 and respect inspired by Miss Anthony, whose name 
 will forever lead in the galaxy of America's noble 
 women. 
 
 An editorial article which Miss Field wrote about 
 this time, entitled " A Vision of the Centuries," is 
 almost a classic in its poetic beauty and merits liter- 
 ary immortality. It is subjoined. 
 
 " On Sunday night, I stood alone in the Court of Honor 
 of the Columbian Exposition. Though eighty-eight thou- 
 sand persons had passed the turnstiles during the day, I 
 was sole spectator of a scene that can never be forgotten. 
 No one who has not beheld that marvellous creation of 
 brain and gold in the mysterious solitude of night has the 
 faintest conception of its weird and awful beauty. East- 
 ward shimmered Lake Michigan, beside which arose the 
 graceful columns of the peristyle ; westward, a quarter of a 
 mile away, loomed the Administration Building ablaze with 
 light, its dome looking like the jewelled crown of a colossal 
 king. Between these two architectural inspirations rippled 
 the waters of that exquisite lagoon which makes the Exposi- 
 tion of 1893 unique in the world's history ; north stood the 
 great expanse of the Manufactures Building; beyond lay 
 that dedicated to Electricity ; southward. Machinery Hall 
 and the Agricultural Building filled in the long stretch and 
 completed such a court as mortal eye never before gazed 
 upon. Electric lights outlined all these wondrous struc- 
 tures and told a story in fire that never can be told in 
 words. The great gold statue of the republic seemed to 
 
5o6 Kate Field 
 
 rise from the water and extend her arms in benediction, 
 while Diana looked down from the Agricultural Building as 
 if she would clasp hands with the Genius of the Court. 
 
 "Stars were my sole companions. Chicago that night 
 harbored two million souls, half of whom were bent upon 
 standing where I then stood a few hours later. Why was I 
 alone in paying tribute to a silent beauty that a few weeks 
 hence will live only in memory? Why was I alone thank- 
 ing God for this manifestation of the divinity of humanity ? 
 The soHtude was all the more unearthly for being so 
 brilliantly illuminated. All this for the joy of one small 
 woman ! I rubbed my eyes and peered into the night. 
 A solitary Columbian guard brought me to my senses. 
 Aladdin had not loaned me his lamps. The mid-autumn 
 dream which no poet dare set to verse, its own rhythm 
 transcending language, was a great palpitating fact, a vision 
 of all the centuries grouped on the shores of Lake Michi- 
 gan to teach the New World reverence for the ideal. 
 
 " A westerly wind blew dust in my eyes and made me 
 shiver. How miserable are the limitations of mortality ! I 
 had determined to pass the night with Diana and the 
 RepubHc. I longed to see the sun rise above Lake Michi- 
 gan and kiss the Genius of the Court of Honor on the 
 morning of all mornings of The Fair. That shiver warned 
 me of pneumonia, and, like the poor bit of humanity that I 
 am, I clambered up the steps of the elevated railway station 
 and went home to sleep in bed. Thus does prose kill 
 poetry." 
 
 The social side of the Exposition was exception- 
 ally charming to Miss Field, as her familiarity with 
 French and Italian made her at home with foreigners 
 who spoke those languages, and her periods of resi- 
 dence abroad had habituated her to foreign prefer- 
 ences and customs. She was constantly sought as a 
 
Kate Field's Washington 507 
 
 guest at dinners and receptions; as a speaker at 
 clubs and meetings and informal gatherings. The 
 demands upon her were incessant; yet she seldom 
 or never failed to meet them, and after late hours 
 at night she often rose at five for her unremitting 
 press work. To a friend who sent her a little remem- 
 brance in rhyme for her birthday that year, accom- 
 panied with roses, she wrote under date of October i, 
 1893: — 
 
 ..." That you should remember what I had forgotten ! 
 I am very much touched by your poem and the flower of it. 
 I cannot rhyme you in return, but I can wish that your life 
 be a poem. May all good things come to you, and God 
 bless all of us ! I only ask to be able to meet the duty of 
 the hour and to be of some little use. I expect nothing. 
 There is only one birthday worth celebrating, — that of the 
 day when we can say, I accept the inevitable." 
 
 Looking back, it is easy to see how bravely she 
 carried her burdens, and how she seemed to have 
 half-conscious impressions that the end was not far 
 distant. 
 
 The winter of 1893-94 she passed in Washington, 
 with frequent interludes in New York, and in the 
 spring she repeated in Washington her course of lec- 
 tures on the political problems involved in Mormon- 
 ism. Under date of IVIarch 15, 1894, Dr. William T. 
 Harris, National Superintendent of Education, wrote 
 to her : — 
 
 My dear Miss Field, — I write to thank you for the 
 complimentary tickets to your lecture. I am very glad that 
 you are giving this interesting and instructive course of lec- 
 tures. You have a way of putting things that brings home 
 to the judgment the right and wrong of the matter. I have 
 
5o8 Kate Field 
 
 purchased a course ticket, and hope that I shall be able to 
 attend some of them, but I am in feeble health just now, 
 having a side hit of the grip. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 William T. Harris. 
 
 The great achievements and the singularly exalted 
 and winning character of Dr. Harris greatly impressed 
 Miss Field, and she held him in an almost reverent 
 esteem. 
 
 In the summer of 1894 Miss Field's beloved aunt, 
 Mrs. Sanford, died on August i, and her body was 
 brought for burial beside her husband in a country 
 town cemetery near Boston. Kate had been re- 
 maining in Washington, deeply engaged in work all 
 summer, and was much exhausted by the intense 
 heat. She came to Boston to attend the burial of her 
 aunt, and remained for a few days as the , guest of a 
 friend at the Brunswick Hotel, where she was always 
 fond of sojourning. It was evident then that her 
 health was seriously failing, and that she was in grave 
 need of the rest that circumstances did not permit 
 her to take. The evening after the funeral services 
 she lay exhausted on the sofa, while her mind reverted 
 to the panorama of her own life that had been so 
 closely linked with that of her Aunt Corda. 
 
 " Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas, 
 Ease after war, death after life does greatly please ! " 
 
 she repeated, half dreamily, as she lay with closed 
 eyes, with a rose half falling from one delicate little 
 hand. The August moonlight came in at the win- 
 dows ; the electric lights were turned off in favor of 
 the silver radiance without; and Kate's conversatiorv 
 turned on the wonder and mystery of the Unseen. 
 
Kate Field's Washington 509 
 
 In a little memorial reminiscence of her aunt and 
 her home in Newport which she gave in her paper, 
 she wrote of it as " artistic in construction and adorn- 
 ment," and that " many a gay party of kindred souls 
 have watched the setting sun and bade the moon 
 welcome on the broad piazza of Edna Villa." And 
 she added : " A magnificent grand piano made the 
 drawing-room of the villa as attractive as the charm- 
 ing waterscape without, for the nimble fingers and 
 well-trained voice of the hostess created such music 
 as is rarely heard from amateurs. Beautiful was her 
 speaking voice, silvery was her laugh, keen were 
 her criticisms of men and things, passionate was her 
 love of art. In her Elihu Vedder found his first 
 patron, and in her William Morris Hunt had a warm 
 friend." 
 
 So vanished from the earthly life Corda Riddle 
 Sanford. She was a woman who inhabited a high 
 sphere of thought, whose mind was stored with clas- 
 sic literature, whose presence had a suggestion of 
 the majestic, whose conversation was exceptionally 
 charming, and whose life contributed to the interests 
 of art, and especially of music, for which her own 
 talent was almost genius. 
 
 Miss Field returned to Washington, but something of 
 the energy and exhilaration of life had left her. During 
 this autumn of 1894 the French Government bestowed 
 a well-merited honor upon Miss Field by decorating 
 her with the " Palms of the Academy," with the title 
 of " Officier de r Instruction publique," — the highest 
 distinction which the French Republic could bestow. 
 The French Government were swift to recognize Miss 
 Field's eminent service to art two years before, and 
 the honor was offered her then ; but she refused to 
 
5IO Kate Field 
 
 accept it until the battle was entirely won, and art 
 made free, the entire repeal being secured in 1894. 
 Since that date, it is sad to record, the tax has again 
 been added. There passed between the French Min- 
 ister and Miss Field the following correspondence: 
 
 Correspondence 
 
 LifiGATioN DE France aux Etats-Unis, 
 Washington, D. C, Dec. 2, 1892. 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — Mr. Patenotre this day sent a letter 
 to you at the Shoreham, in which he informs you that the 
 French Government has made you an officer of public in- 
 struction. This is the highest distinction the Department 
 of Public Instruction can bestow for service rendered to 
 hterature and to art. The brevet is enclosed in the letter, 
 but the Minister wishes to hand you the decoration in per- 
 son upon your return. 
 
 Nobody takes greater delight than I in the bestowal to 
 you of this well-deserved honor. Please accept my most 
 heartfelt congratulations. 
 
 Sincerely and respectfully yours, 
 
 Jules Bceufv6, 
 Chancellor of the French Legation. 
 
 LEGATION DE LA Rl^PUBLIQUE FrANQAISE AUX EtATS-UnIS, 
 
 Washington, le 30 Novembre 1892. 
 Mademoiselle, — Le Gouvernement Frangais, d^sireux 
 de reconnaitre les services que rend a la cause de I'art le 
 journal que vous dirigez avec tant d'intelligence et de talent 
 a d^cid^, sur ma demande, de vous confdrer les palmes acad6- 
 miques, institutes, comme vous le savez, par notre D^parte- 
 ment de ITnstruction Publique pour rdcompenser les artistes 
 et les httdrateurs. Je suis heureux d'etre appall a vous in- 
 former de cette decision et je m'empresse de vous envoyer 
 le brevet qui vous est destine. J'aurai I'honneur, lors de 
 
Kate Field's Washington 5 1 1 
 
 votre retour a Washington, de vous remettre les insignes de 
 la decoration qui vient de vous etre d^cern^e. 
 
 Veuillez agrder, Mademoiselle, avec mes bien sinceres 
 felicitations, I'assurance de men respectueux devouement. 
 
 Patenotre. 
 
 Washington City, Nov. 17, 1894. 
 To His Excellency the Ambassador of France. 
 
 Sir, — The honor conferred upon me as editor of a na- 
 tional review by the Government of France through you, 
 who so ably represent the great republic of Europe, is the 
 more delightful for being unexpected. I will not affect 
 modesty, preferring to emulate the example of that eminent 
 diplomatist and lawyer, the Hon. Edward J. Phelps, who, 
 after listening to his own praises at a banquet in New York, 
 replied that he " had quite made up his mind it was far 
 pleasanter to receive plaudits than to have the merit to de- 
 serve them." Accept my heart's assurance that I am pro- 
 foundly grateful to your Government for decorating me with 
 the palms of the Academy, the possession of which will be 
 a constant inspiration. 
 
 " Perhaps the longing to be so 
 Helps make the soul immortal," 
 
 sings Lowell. Perhaps the longing to deserve this great 
 recognition will help make me worthy of it. 
 
 That the union between your country and mine may be 
 as close as that which unites you, dear sir, to one of Amer- 
 ica's fairest daughters, is the fond prayer of. 
 Yours truly and gratefully, 
 
 Kate Field. 
 
 The parchment read as follows : — 
 
5 1 2 Kate Field 
 
 REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE. 
 
 MINISXilRE DE L'INSTRUCTION PUBLIQUE ET 
 DES BEAUX-ARTS. 
 
 Le Ministre de V Instruction publique et des Beaux-Arts, 
 
 Vu Particle 32 du dicret organiqzte du 17 mars 1808; 
 
 Vu les ordonnances royales des 14 novembre 1844, 9 septembre 
 
 1845 et I"" novembre 1846; 
 Vu les dkrets des g dkembre 1850, 7 avril et 27 d^cembre 1866, 
 
 et 24 decembre 1885, 
 
 yl/wj Kate Field, Coiifirenciire h Washington est nomme Officier 
 de I' Instruction publique. 
 
 Fait h. Paris, le 24 Septe»tbre 1892. 
 Le Ministre de I ^ Instncciion publique et des Beaux- A rts, 
 SigTt^ : Lion Bourgeois. 
 Pour ampliation : 
 Le Chef du Cabinet, Mehufnel. 
 
 Congratulations both public and private were 
 showered upon Miss Field. The generous world of 
 the press echoed and re-echoed this merited honor ; 
 and never in her life, perhaps, had Miss Field been 
 so touched by the evidence of the wide and warm 
 friendships that environed her as at this time.' 
 Among the words of the press, those of her friend, 
 Mr. Henry MacFarland, the able Washington repre- 
 sentative of the Boston "Herald," were peculiarly 
 grateful to Miss Field. Mr. MacFarland said : — 
 
 • • • " I was the more pleased because, so far as I have 
 seen, there has been no public expression of appreciation 
 of Miss Field's services in this behalf in our own country. 
 I do not know, of course, what private testimonials she has 
 
Kate Field' s Washington 5 1 3 
 
 received, but I had expected that when the long battle for 
 free art, in which she took so large a part, was won, 
 that she would be publicly honored by the artists and art 
 lovers of America, to say nothing of other intelligent and 
 cultivated and patriotic people, according to her rich 
 deserts. 
 
 " I can personally testify, as one who has witnessed the 
 whole fight for free art before Congress, that Miss Field, 
 with voice and pen, privately and publicly, before commit- 
 tees and in her weekly periodical, ' Kate Field's Washing- 
 ton,' in season and out of season, exerted all her powers and 
 all her influence to secure free art, and that she did it in so 
 practical a way as to accomplish more than any of the 
 others who worked with her. 
 
 " Senators and representatives, members of the finance and 
 ways and means committees, would, I doubt not, sustain me 
 in saying that Miss Field was by far the most effective ad- 
 vocate of this cause. 
 
 " No woman, or man either, of less courage, patience, 
 and persistence, would have maintained the struggle, which 
 at times was apparently almost hopeless, and certainly most 
 disheartening. 
 
 " But Miss Field is just the person to lead a forlorn hope, 
 and she did it in this case nobly. She wrested from indif- 
 ference and opposition, first, a reduction of fifteen per cent, 
 and finally the removal of the entire duty in' the last tariff' 
 bill. 
 
 " Our government did all it is likely to do, I suppose, in 
 tardily and reluctantly granting Miss Field's request for free 
 art, but it does seem to me that, even if she cannot have 
 governmental recognition, the United States ought not to 
 be outdone by the republic of France in publicly rewarding 
 her self-sacrificing labors." 
 
 The New York " Evening Post " said : — 
 33 
 
514 Kate Field 
 
 " In conferring upon Miss Kate Field the ' Academic 
 Palm,' the highest distinction the Department of Public In- 
 struction can bestow, the French republic formally recog- 
 nizes, in a manner as rare as it is complimentary, one of the 
 foremost women of America. Essentially an American 
 woman, she has not only rendered service to literature and 
 art, but has been a leader of public thought. To Miss 
 Field's efforts, on the platform and with her pen, was due 
 in no small degree the solution of the Mormon problem, 
 which made statehood for Utah possible, and in other ques- 
 tions of moment her influence has been widely felt. ' The 
 Post ' extends to Miss Field its most cordial congratulations 
 upon the great honor her talents have won." 
 
 To Miss Field, herself, however, while she grate- 
 fully appreciated this recognition, her best reward 
 was in the results achieved for the benefit of art 
 and artists. 
 
 " Kate Field's Washington " had a little over five 
 years' tenure of life. During that time Miss Field 
 rendered signal services to art, to the development 
 and progress of the great West and Alaska, to edu- 
 cation in the United States, to music and the drama, 
 and to international copyright. Not the least of its 
 interest was in her power to condense, in a phrase, 
 a complete portrait of an individual, as when she 
 said of Paderewski that he had " the head of a poet 
 and the face of a spirit." She also said of him : 
 " If there ever were a poet pianist, Paderewski is he. 
 . . . He is Italy in the flesh. His is the sentiment 
 and dreamy beaut)' of the land of Dante, of Rafael, 
 of Cimarosa. He is first and always sympathetic. . . . 
 When he first appears on the platform, a new kind of 
 creature seems to have come upon the earth. It is 
 not the being we call man ; it certainly is not woman. 
 
Kate Field's Washington 515 
 
 It is just Paderewski. The genius of his playing is 
 its spirituality. He is fine in the Hungarian rhapsody, 
 but he is unique in the moonlight of music, — in noc- 
 turnes, in the minuet and trio of Beethoven's sonata. 
 Opus 31, and in Chopin." 
 
 The Columbian Exposition awarded to Miss Field's 
 journal a medal and diploma. The official declaration 
 pronounced " Kate Field's Washington" to be " intel- 
 ligently devoted to timely discussion of the affairs of 
 government, art, the sciences, literature, the drama, 
 the functions of society, and the steady march of man- 
 kind toward the highest summit of human achieve- 
 ment," and added : — 
 
 This journal is edited and controlled by Kate Field, — 
 a most gifted and accomplished American woman, — and 
 " Kate Field's Washington " is the very best and highest 
 expression of woman's capability to lead in the triumphant 
 advance of all that is noblest and most salutary in the pro- 
 gress of an exalted civilization. 
 
 The literary contents of this journal are of the very high- 
 est character, bearing the stamp of originality, cultivated 
 thought, mature judgment, poetic sentiment, sparkling wit, 
 refreshing humor, and, above all, the sterling and unflinch- 
 ing spirit of patriotic adherence to American institutions. 
 
 In my judgment Miss Field is entitled not only to the 
 most honorable mention, but to an award as well for the 
 advanced skill . and signal ability disclosed by her in pro- 
 ducing a periodical journal at once so utilitarian and fasci- 
 nating as to make it a most welcome and valuable source 
 of education to every home and fireside, and to every 
 library and literary circle wherever the English tongue is 
 spoken, or the welfare of man is a motive of human thought 
 
 and action. 
 
 (Signed) Francis A. Riddle, 
 
 Judge Deft L., Group 150. 
 
5 1 6 Kate Field 
 
 This honor was peculiarly gratifying to Miss Field, 
 as, out of all the projects of her life, her journal was 
 dearest to her heart. Bayard Taylor, meeting her in 
 Florence, had remarked: "There is a girl with the 
 most remarkable literary promise who is yet pos- 
 sessed to go on the operatic stage." The " literary 
 promise " persisted, and her mature life more than 
 fulfilled the prophecy of her youth, although in a 
 different trend from that of pure literature. Ideas 
 engaged her; literary work in any form of expression 
 was to her a vehicle for the communication of energy 
 to a desired movement. Her journalism was her 
 instrument by means of which she could work to cer- 
 tain essential ends. The stirring questions of the 
 day enlisted her eager interest, to the exclusion, or, 
 rather, the postponement of abstract problems of 
 thought. For she always saw life under the condi- 
 tions of eternity. She was not given to talking of 
 this, but it was the basis, consciously and uncon- 
 sciously, of all her action. As she was nearing the 
 limits of her stay on earth, she felt the importance of 
 time more and more profoundly; and to the friend 
 to whom her almost daily letters, through a period 
 of fifteen years, had revealed with exceptional clear- 
 ness her lofty nature, she said in a letter of 1894, " I 
 want to live every day as if it were my last." There 
 was nothing morbid about this ; seen now, in the light 
 of the experiences awaiting her, it suggests that her 
 spiritual vision discerned the brief space of time left 
 to her here^ and that it inevitably colored and prede- 
 termined her action. The relinquishment of her jour- 
 nal was a peculiarly hard thing for her ; it meant the 
 relinquishment of ardent hopes, of infinite aspiration, 
 of an energy of purpose seldom known. Nor was 
 
Kate Field's Washington 5 1 7 
 
 this unappreciated by the journalistic fraternity. She 
 issued a circular stating to her subscribers and to the 
 press that ill health compelled the cessation of her 
 journalistic work. The press comments from thou- 
 sands of papers were most kindly and sympathetic 
 and full of generous appreciation of her journal. 
 
 The multitude of kindly messages and expressions 
 of sympathy flowed in upon her, publicly and pri- 
 vately, and gave her great comfort. A letter from 
 Mr. Albert Shaw, the editor of the " Review of Re- 
 views," ran : — 
 
 July I, 1895. 
 
 Dear Miss Field, — I am truly sorry that you are too 
 ill to keep the "Washington " running steadily, but I admire 
 and commend your good sense in valuing yourself more 
 highly than the paper. "Kate Field's Washington" has 
 been one of the really creditable successes of our recent 
 American journalism ; but yours is personal journalism, as 
 you say yourself, and " Kate Field's Washington " without 
 Kate Field would be an impossibility. 
 
 It will give me great pleasure to send the " Review of 
 Reviews " to you, and your address will be changed, in 
 care of the " Chicago Times-Herald." I hope that no care 
 or worry will interfere with your getting the complete rest 
 that you need, and I am one of the many people who will 
 be very glad when you come back home with restored 
 vigor. 
 
 Believe me sincerely yours, 
 
 Albert Shaw. 
 
 Mr. Gilder and Mr. Underwood of the " Century; " 
 Miss Gilder of "The Critic; " the editor of the N. Y. 
 " Evening Post," and many other of the most prom- 
 inent editors in the periodical and press literature 
 
5 1 8 Kate Field 
 
 of the country expressed to her their personal 
 sympathy. 
 
 In this apparent reversal of success she only clung 
 more closely to all noble faiths. The merry repartee 
 and glancing wit that all her friends had recognized 
 as Kate Fieldian had departed, and there was about 
 her an atmosphere that was most touching in its 
 mingled sadness and sweetness ; but the finer qualities 
 of her character — her crystal truth, her unfaltering 
 courage, her justice of mental attitude — only shone 
 the more clearly. In this critical hour testing her own 
 endurance, she received, from one of the innumerable 
 strangers who were always writing to her, a letter 
 expressing great dissatisfaction with life, and to this 
 Kate replied under date of July 14, 1895, as follows: 
 
 ..." If you knew how overburdened my life has been from 
 childhood, you would have more charity for those who are 
 apparently successful, and would discover that yours is not 
 the worst fate in the world. I contend that we must all 
 bear our burdens cheerfully without complaint and do the 
 best we can under the circumstances. I have not one 
 moment to spare. 1 must leave soon for a sea-voyage 
 and have work still before me that would appall, did I not 
 take it in sections. Believe in endless progression and you '11 
 attain your star sooner or later. This is not the end. 
 Sincerely, 
 
 Kate Field. 
 
 This was the mental attitude in which Kate Field 
 closed all her affairs in Washington. She left be- 
 hind her five years of brilliant life in the Capital. 
 She had been persona grata in the most brilliant and 
 significant social life ; she had been a factor of im- 
 portance in national movements; she had known 
 
Kate Field's Washington 5 1 9 
 
 beautiful women and eminent men. More than once, 
 indeed, wealth and station had entreated her accept- 
 ance of them and of all the ease and luxury of life 
 they represented; but Kate Field never wavered 
 from her fidelity to the love of romance as the only 
 basis for marriage, and though she had long since 
 " left the coasts of life to travel inland," her faith in 
 love was as pure and as complete as that of an 
 untried girl. A woman of the world, she yet never 
 became a worldly woman. She had learned the 
 meaning of the poet's lines : — 
 
 " By thine own soul's law learn to live. 
 And if men thwart thee take no heed, 
 And if men hate thee have no care ; 
 Sing thou thy song and do thy deed, 
 Hope thou thy hope and pray thy prayer, 
 And claim no crown they will not give, 
 Nor bays they grudge thee for thy hair." 
 
 It chanced that Kate wrote to her most constant 
 correspondent on the date of May 19, 1895, — just 
 one year before her death, which occurred on the 
 May 19th of the next year: and in this letter she 
 said: "I'm busy day and night winding up a five 
 years' volume of my life." 
 
 Looking backward now, the coincidence of the 
 dates is a curious little fact. It was, indeed, the 
 winding up of the last chapter of her life in her own 
 country. 
 
 A new chapter, however, awaited her in the summer 
 islands of the Pacific, and one whose importance was 
 worthy of the closing of her life. The elasticity of 
 her temperament led her to anticipate the new scenes 
 and interests with a kind of sad pleasure ; and in this 
 spirit, sad, yet not undismayed, Kate packed innu- 
 
520 Kate Field 
 
 merable trunks left stored ia Washington; she made 
 her will; she closed all her affairs, and turned her 
 face toward the voyage which was, indeed, in a 
 deeper sense than her friends could dream, to lead 
 her to the Fortunate Isles. 
 
CROSSING THE BAR 
 
 " Her life was earnest work, not play ; 
 Her tired feet climbed a weary way ; 
 U nguessed of her in life the love 
 That rained its tears her grave above. 
 
 What is your brave act without a brave nature behind it? 
 What is your smile unless I know that you are kind? What is 
 your indignant blow unless your heart is on fire ? What is all 
 your activity without you ? How instantly the impression of a 
 character creates itself, springs into shape behind a deed. 
 
 Phillips Brooks. 
 
 ' Life made by duty epical 
 And rhythmic with the truth. 
 
 " That noble, loving heart, — that gift 
 Of a mind earnest, clear, profound, — 
 Affinities which only could 
 Cling to the pure, the true, the good." 
 
 Love is the whole. Now love in the thought or purpose 
 means "look out and not in." Love in the act means "lend a 
 hand." . . . Faith, hope, and love make the whole of life, and 
 love the largest of the three. — Edward Everett Hale. 
 
 There shall never be one lost good ! What was, shall live as 
 
 before ; 
 The evil is null, is naught, is silence implying sound ; 
 What was good, shall be good, with, for evil, so much good 
 
 more; 
 On the earth the broken arcs ; in the heaven, a perfect round. 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 . . , Take along with you this holy earnestness, for earnestness alone 
 makes life eternity. — Goethe. 
 
 A supernatural state of society? It is a goal; otherwise, of what use is 
 society? ... I would have every attribute of man a symbol of civilization 
 and an attribute of progress ; I would present liberty to the intellect, equality 
 to the heart, fraternity to the soul. — Victor Hugo. 
 
 ... A Hand 
 Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee I 
 See the Christ stand I 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 
 Crossing the Bar. A Journey of Destiny. Life and Studies 
 IN Hawaii. Noble and Generous Work. The Angel of 
 Death. 
 
 THE link of destiny that was to lead Kate Field 
 to Hawaii, and from those islands of the sea 
 on into the unseen realm, was forged when on the 
 death of Kalakaua she began to advocate annexation. 
 The King of Hawaii was a personal figure that 
 attracted her attention. In an editorial note regard- 
 ing him in her own Review she had once written : 
 
 " Kalakaua, the late King of Hawaii, was a true Bohe- 
 mian, In his palace at Honolulu he set apart a chamber 
 in which it was his intention to hold high revels at intervals. 
 There only the elect were permitted to enter ; there His 
 Majesty laid off his robes of state, hung his crown on the 
 hat-rack, and, while never forgetting his dignity, he would 
 
524 Kate Field 
 
 play a capital banjo accompaniment to the college songs 
 and native choruses rendered by his guests. 
 
 " The men who knew him best were fondest of him ; so 
 some of these, poets and painters, conceived the happy 
 thought of making an offering to the royal Bohemian cham- 
 ber. Artists painted pictures, poets wrote couplets which 
 were richly illuminated and framed and hung upon the 
 walls. These were all voluntary tributes of good fellowship 
 to a mighty good fellow who thoroughly appreciated his 
 friends. 
 
 " The following is one of the tributes which His Majesty 
 inspired. It is an acrostic on the word Aloha — which 
 means Love, or Love to you. It is the national greeting of 
 the Hawaiian people, and is almost constantly upon their 
 lips." 
 
 The acrostic to which Miss Field alluded is this 
 clever stanza by Prof. Charles Warren Stoddard of 
 the Catholic University of Washington : — 
 
 " Aloha ! Royal Health to Royal Host ! 
 
 Long live the King beneath his royal palms, 
 
 O'er him, ye soft winds, breathe your sweetest psalms. 
 
 Hail him, ye seas that fawn upon his coast. 
 
 Aloha ! and Aloha ! and Aloha ! — Pros' t ! " 
 
 Frequent expressions regarding Hawaii and the 
 affairs of the islands appeared from the pen of Miss 
 Field ; and when Mr. Blount was sent to Hawaii by the 
 Administration, — although for years he had been a 
 member of Congress, and even the Chairman of the 
 House Committee on Foreign Affairs, — Miss Field 
 reiterated editorially that he was not a fitting person 
 to be entrusted with a diplomatic mission. Later 
 she regretted that Mr. Willis had not been sent first 
 instead of last; and she frequently noted in "Kate 
 Field's Washington " the advanced state of civilization 
 
Crossing the Bar 525 
 
 in Hawaii. She contended that those islands were 
 important to the commerce of this country, and she 
 so pushed her researches into the matter as to find 
 out how many American vessels had arrived at the 
 principal ports, with the amount of tonnage of each, 
 for the year ending June 30, 1894. Giving these sta- 
 tistics, editorially, in her " Washington," Miss Field 
 added : — 
 
 " Perhaps, after comparing these figures and discovering 
 the value of Honolulu to American shipping, they may not 
 be quite so anxious to give Great Britain leave to lease 
 Neckar Island and establish cable communications vrith 
 British Columbia. This Congress has wondrous facility in 
 committing Hari-kari, but if there be an atom of sense and 
 patriotism left, the cable to Hawaii will be controlled by 
 the United States." 
 
 As early, indeed, as in iSQi.the Hawaiian problem 
 began to engage her attention. One of her first 
 editorials was for cable communication, of which she 
 wrote : — 
 
 " That there should be a cable between this country and 
 Hawaii is as evident as that the Hawaiian Islands are ours 
 by the trend of the land. Not to equip the harbor of Pearl 
 River for a naval station is to fly in the face of Providence." 
 
 From time to time she recurred to the subject; 
 and this period of unconscious preparation finally 
 led to her undertaking the great work to which her 
 energy was given with a devotion that cost her life. 
 
 It was on July 25, 1895, that Kate Field left Wash- 
 ington never to return. She stopped in Chicago, her 
 stay there proving longer than she had expected, and 
 it was well into September before she left that city to 
 
526 Kate Field 
 
 embark for Hawaii. Again she lingered en route, in 
 Denver, in Salt Lake City, and finally in San Fran- 
 cisco, so that she did not sail until the middle of 
 November, reaching Honolulu six days later. Read- 
 ing her life backward through these months, it almost 
 seems as if she had a prescience that these were her 
 last days in her own country. Curiously, when, on 
 November 14th, she embarked from San Francisco, 
 she gave to a friend directions as to what should be 
 done in case she should die in Hawaii and her body 
 be brought back, — directions that were carried out 
 in little more than one year. There was a pervading 
 depth of sadness in her life at this time, although she 
 was very brave, and she had consolation in the nature 
 of an increasingly larger perception of the unseen 
 forces which gave her strength. Then, too, she never 
 lost her interest in the life of the moment. Few per- 
 sons ever lived de jour au jour to such an extent as 
 Kate Field. In a private letter she once said to a 
 friend : — 
 
 " I don't know what becomes of my time. I only know 
 that I 'm occupied every moment of the day, and accom- 
 plish nothing. And here it is the end of June, with '89 
 going down hill ! It always makes me sad to turn my back 
 on the longest day of the year." 
 
 This last sentence suggests the range of her cease- 
 less activities. 
 
 Truth is stranger than fiction in the curious links of 
 personality and circumstance by means of which life 
 progresses. We all realize certain fateful crises in 
 our own lives of which we say, had it not been that 
 such a friend came forward at that moment; or, had 
 it not been that such a thing happened, — what 
 
Crossing the Bar 527 
 
 should I have done? But the friend who was needed 
 appeared ; the one event so essential did happen ; 
 for a care and a guidance that is closer and more 
 tender than we realize is over and about us all. The 
 Divine overruling is the one supreme reality in all 
 the universe. 
 
 The provision for this fateful emergency in her life 
 had already been made for Kate Field. During the 
 Columbian Exposition she had made the acquaintance 
 of Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Kohlsaat of Chicago, and soon 
 after this Mr. Kohlsaat became the proprietor of 
 a daily Chicago journal, the " Times-Herald." Ap- 
 preciating very keenly Miss Field's exceptional 
 power, he aided her in closing the business matters 
 of her own journal ; aided her with a generosity 
 and delicate kindness which finds record more endur- 
 ing than that of any printed page, and which was only 
 made possible by his sympathy with her perplexities 
 and her failing health, and by his own command of 
 liberal resources. Mr. Kohlsaat was also, himself, 
 deeply interested in the problem of the annexation 
 of Hawaii, and so it came about that he gave Miss 
 Field a " roving commission " as correspondent for 
 his journal. Mr. Kohlsaat's great enterprise was sup- 
 ported by his great wealth ; his terms to her were 
 generously satisfactory, and his appreciation of her 
 fitness for so important a mission in what may be 
 called diplomatic journalism was most grateful to 
 her. So again, in this most dramatic life of Kate 
 Field, was a failure, or a loss, instantly transmuted 
 into a success, or a gain. Miss Field accepted Mr. 
 Kohlsaat's proposition that she go to Hawaii to 
 study the conditions and to advocate annexation in 
 case her observations confirmed her judgment in that 
 
528 Kate Field 
 
 direction. While in Chicago, another matter tem- 
 porarily engaged her attention that seemed like a 
 rhythmic sequence rounding out her purposes in life. 
 It will be remembered that in her early youth the 
 first public work in which she ever engaged was that 
 of telling, on the lecture platform, the story of John 
 Brown's neglected grave and raising funds to purchase 
 his farm in the Adirondacks and to redeem this his- 
 toric spot from vandalism. And so the last work of 
 her life in America was to arrange for the transpor- 
 tation of the John Brown Fort — which had been 
 shown in Chicago during the Columbian Exposition 
 — to a site in Harper's Ferry. In the midsummer 
 heat Miss Field worked, wrote, and addressed meet- 
 ings in Chicago to raise the funds for this purpose, 
 as she had already secured a site which, by her 
 appeal, had been donated by Stowe College, an insti- 
 tution for colored people. This site is on the mag- 
 nificent heights overlooking the Shenandoah valley, 
 and is well calculated to make John Brown's Fort a 
 Mecca for travellers. Miss Field ardently desired to 
 see it placed where John Brown left it, where the 
 story can be told on its own ground with the battle- 
 fields of the two great armies within sight, and with 
 Sheridan's ride ringing in the air. 
 
 This purpose was achieved, and it seems the 
 crowning sequence of the work of Kate Field for 
 " Old John Brown," whose heroic soul, we may well 
 believe, is still marching on. 
 
 All this time, while reluctant to journey on, in a 
 way that was curiously unlike her old self, she was 
 still eager to enter on the new field of study and 
 work in Hawaii. " If I allowed myself to waste vi- 
 tality in regrets, I 'd deplore not having been in 
 
Crossing the Bar 529 
 
 Hawaii several months ago. But the inevitable is to 
 be gracefully accepted," she wrote to her most con- 
 stant correspondent. During this enforced pause slie 
 often dropped into reminiscence in her letters. In 
 reference to some question of her correspondent re- 
 garding her London visit of 1882, she recalled some 
 incidents, and among others this memory of Ristori : 
 
 " I had gone to old Drury Lane Theatre to get seats for 
 Wagner's ' Meistersingers,' when what should my eyes fall 
 upon but great posters announcing ' Ristori in English ! 
 Macbeth ! ' What pluck and what perseverance ? I gave 
 Ristori her first lessons in English ' when I was a boy,' so 
 to speak, and then found her daring enough to attempt 
 Shakespeare in his native tongue and on his native heath. 
 
 " ' Give me Madame Ristori's address,' I said to the box- 
 office man. 
 
 " ' Don't ! ' whispered an invisible voice, proceeding from 
 a man who on catching sight of me rushed forth exclaim- 
 ing, ' Oh, it is you. Miss Field ? That 's quite another 
 matter. So many people ask for Madame's address, and we 
 refuse to give it out of self-defence, but you, c'est une autre 
 affaire.' It was Wertheimer, Ristori's agent. 
 
 "Ristori was rehearsing. Would I go in front? Of 
 course, so we stumbled along the dark corridors into the 
 big theatre, and I sat (an audience of one) in a stall while 
 Wertheimer went to Ristori. 
 
 " ' Katey Field ! Katey Field ! est-ce possible ? mais viens 
 ici, tout de suite ! ' exclaimed Ristori, and in a moment 
 more I was on the grand old stage being kissed and em- 
 braced by the greatest living actress. ' Only last night we 
 were wondering where you were,' she said, ' and behold ! 
 It is magnetism.' I sat out the rehearsal, meeting the 
 manager, Augustus Harris, and several of the actors that I 
 knew. It was very interesting, Ristori talking to me in 
 
 34 
 
530 Kate Field 
 
 Italian, giving her instructions to Harris in French to inter- 
 pret into English and then speaking Shakespeare with an 
 accent. Ah ! I wish you could have been present. While sit- 
 ting there an idea of an article occurred to me, 'A Rehearsal 
 at Drury Lane,' and at once I began to take notes, much 
 to Harris's edification, whom I interviewed, later, as the 
 stage manager. This was an example of the way I ' rested ' 
 that summer ! . . . I think I must have written you at the 
 time of my experience in Wagner opera that season. I heard 
 the ' Meistersingers ' one night when Richter, the celebrated 
 conductor, had an ovation. His orchestra was magnificent. 
 ... I went with De Wartegg, Minnie Hauk's husband. 
 She was in Baden-Baden. We encountered accidentally in 
 the street, and as we were neighbors and liked the same 
 things, we went about together. He was an amiable and 
 clever man (journalist) of fine family and standing in 
 Austria." 
 
 During all this lingering Kate's letters were more 
 or less reminiscent, as if she were half-conscious of 
 standing on the verge of all her past life. To some 
 reference of her correspondent to Mr. Lowell she 
 replied : — 
 
 " Did I ever tell you that I only just missed having an 
 original poem from Lowell to recite on the occasion of the 
 Stratford-on-Avon festival for the benefit of the theatre 
 when I recited one written by Dr. Marston ? I had written to 
 Mr. Lowell begging he would do the Shakespeare Memorial 
 Association this great favor, and I enclose you his reply." 
 
 The letter to which Miss Field here referred is as 
 follows : — 
 
 Madrid, March 15, 1879. 
 
 You have been in Spain and know what manana means 
 in its ordinary application, but you don't know what it 
 
Crossing the Bar 531 
 
 means to a minister without a secretary in the busiest lega- 
 tion we have. It means that when so long a date as 23 
 April is given, one stands whistling for some verses (that 
 won't come) to send to Miss Field, and thinks, " to-morrow 
 I will write and say it is hopeless." I have so many bothers 
 and so many occupations that all I can recollect about 
 Shakspeare is that his name is not spelt as I spell it, and 
 that he did not die on the same day with Cervantes. 
 These materials don't go far to the making of a poem, you 
 will allow — even if I could make one. 
 
 I am really sorry that I can't, since you ask it, and all the 
 more because I am going to ask a favor of you. Here it 
 is. Do you happen to have by you a copy of your little 
 book about Spain ? And if you have, would you be good 
 enough to send it to me, not for myself, but for a very 
 charming Spanish friend of mine here who would be very 
 glad to see it again ? If you have n't, I can write home for 
 it, but if you have, and could spare it, I should get it a 
 month sooner. 
 
 You see I am asking you to do something for me because 
 I won't do anything for you ; but to be always trying to get 
 something for nothing is the business which I have been 
 learning these two years. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 James Russell Lowell. 
 
 In this way her mind seemed constantly reverting 
 to the past, rather than, as usual, to the future that lay 
 before her, and this was a new phase of her personal- 
 ity. " If I am anything I am a woman of To-morrow," 
 she had once written in reply to a friend who had 
 begged to include her in a series of sketches to be 
 called "Women of To-day." Always before her 
 thoughts had been engaged pressing on to things 
 in advance, almost forgetting those that lay behind. 
 
53- Kate Field 
 
 But her prophetic mind undoubtedly caught some 
 impression that a more mysterious journey than a 
 voyage to the Hawaiian Islands lay before her. 
 
 The summer flowers bloomed and faded, and in the 
 early September Kate left Chicago for San Francisco, 
 pausing at Salt Lake City. She remained there for 
 some days, and her hotel was constantly thronged 
 with callers. A little more than ten years had passed 
 since her first visit to Zion, and in all the subsequent 
 time she had taken the most active interest in the 
 progress of the people. She had watched the break- 
 ing up of old lines, the cessation of animosity between 
 the Gentile and the Mormon ; and no one was more 
 familiar with all the conditions than was Kate Field. 
 She found a very curious reversal of former states. 
 To the friend to whom her almost daily letters never 
 failed until made impossible by the unfrequent mails 
 from Hawaii, she wrote : — 
 
 " I did not expect to see my press letters quoted in 
 Utah, for the reason that I was not partisan. Fancy 
 my amazement at seeing both sides making ' elegant ex- 
 tracts.'. They take what agrees with their complexion and 
 leave out the rest ; and the ' Herald ' had the gall to re- 
 proach the ' Tribune ' for ignoring what would n't be to its 
 advantage to print. Thereupon the ' Tribune ' makes a bluff 
 by declaring that when Miss Field writes about the glories 
 of Salt Lake, it is its business to assist Zion by copying the 
 same, but it does not propose to resurrect graveyard rem- 
 iniscences. This is a specimen of the way the press goes 
 on in Utah ; both sides think one thing, and write another. 
 The atmosphere reeks with insincerity. There is more 
 lying to the square foot in Utah than any place on the 
 habitable globe, I verily believe. That the Republican 
 party and the Mormon Church should now be embracing 
 
Crossing the Bar 533 
 
 each other, is a spectacle for gods and men. The rupture 
 begun by the Democratic re-convention cannot be snuffed 
 out if there be one particle of manhood in young Utah. 
 It gives me great hope, and it would not surprise me, if I 
 live five years and come back to Utah, to be received with 
 open arms by the very people who now think me their worst 
 foe. Those people are Mormon Democrats. Was there 
 ever anything stranger than this evolution?" 
 
 . As will be seen, Kate's sense of humor had not 
 deserted her. Then came San Francisco, and in a 
 private letter she writes : — 
 
 "I arrived here last night. . . . The journey from Salt 
 Lake City is thirty-six hours, and I spent the time in bed. . . . 
 The Press Club gives me a reception to-morrow afternoon, 
 and I shall be dining out a bit. ... I have engaged pas- 
 sage on the ' Mariposa,' that sails on November 14 for Aus- 
 tralia, and stops at Honolulu. I 've a room on deck that the 
 Captain takes me to look at to-morrow, and I shall get as 
 much comfort as I can out of what I detest, — a sea voyage. 
 Six days, however, do not last forever." 
 
 Again, on receipt of a little package, she wrote : 
 
 " The flowers have not lost their fragrance, and that you 
 associate me with them is very sweet. May flowers come 
 to you in all ways, and make you feel that love and friend- 
 ship are more than words. . . . 
 
 " It was perfectly natural that my dear mother should have 
 dreaded to leave me alone, but she understands it all now 
 and knows that I am far better alone than I should be with 
 . . . Marriage is not a panacea — very good when right — 
 terrible when wrong — I have escaped several probabilities 
 of misery, and am to be congratulated." 
 
 In November she sailed and the voyage proved 
 endurable if not enjoyable, and the first view of the 
 
534 Kate Field 
 
 " paradise of the Pacific " enchanted her eye. She 
 had a pleasant apartment at the Hawaiian hotel 
 opening on a private " lanai " (verandah); and a 
 piano, with some books and art draperies she carried 
 with her, made her rooms very individual and attrac- 
 tive. In a private letter, in reply to solicitude about 
 her health, she wrote : — 
 
 " Don't worry. This is the laziest climate on earth, and 
 I 'm lazier than I 've ever been in my life. . . . The ther- 
 mometer stands at 74", the sun shines, the birds sing, all 
 the doors and windows are open. The situation is ex- 
 tremely interesting. I find agreeable men and women, 
 and am greatly taken with President Dole. He is a fine 
 fellow in every way. The U. S. S. ' Bennington ' is here, 
 and at the concert two nights ago, when I sang for the 
 benefit of the lepers, the ofScers loaded me down with 
 flowers. It was a great success, my Spanish song just suit- 
 ing the audience, who applauded wildly and encored me to 
 the echo. We made several hundred dollars, to be ex- 
 pended in Christmas gifts to the lepers who are segregated 
 on the island of Molokai fifty miles away. 
 
 " No mail to the U. S. for twenty days. It is awful. If 
 Congress does not give these islands a cable, the people will 
 eat each other up for lack of other excitement. If you can 
 stir any papers up on this matter, please do. A cable is 
 now being proposed and is before Congress. Were you 
 here, you would write poems about the sea and sky and 
 mountains, all of which are my daily food. As I 'm here 
 for politics, I 'm obliged to study the history and the people 
 before paying my compliments to Nature. Really, I wish 
 I had nothing to do but loaf and invite my soul. It is all 
 this climate is good for. Yet, my dear, I can't escape a 
 ' woman's edition ' of a newspaper even here. I 've just 
 sent a contribution to one gotten up for the benefit of the 
 
Crosshig the Bar 535 
 
 kindergartens. Yes, they've all the religions and all the 
 crazes and all the fads out here in the middle of the 
 Pacific." 
 
 In reference to a curious little psychical experi- 
 ence of which a friend wrote to her, she said : — 
 
 " That 's a strange experience of yours concerning 
 
 , but it does not seem to me at all unhkely. Of 
 
 course, materialists would laugh the idea to scorn, but I 'm 
 not one of that sort, thank God. I believe in a spiritual 
 existence, and it 's most natural to suppose that a spirit will 
 at first hardly realize the change and will linger about old 
 haunts. I 've long since put you down as very medium- 
 istic. You are extremely susceptible to atmospheres." 
 
 Miss Field entered upon the work of studying 
 Hawaiian conditions with that intelligent zeal and 
 thoroughness of method which so characterized her. 
 She ingratiated herself with the natives by her simple 
 and genuine good-will toward them, and gained the 
 confidence of the authorities. Her writings were 
 very judiciously handled ; and when she spoke of 
 the government her letters were read in Cabinet 
 meetings before they were mailed. Sometimes they 
 were changed in part, but usually they were sent as 
 first written. The government recognized in Miss 
 Field a worker for the good of the country, and 
 seldom took exception to what she had to say. 
 
 A certain graphic instinct led her to adopt the 
 most thorough and vivid method of work, — that of 
 personal intercourse and observation. She entered 
 into the very heart of the interests, both local and 
 national, of Hawaii. The cable, the navy, the Ori- 
 ental immigration, engaged her vigilant pen. The 
 
536 Kate Field 
 
 sugar plantations interested her, and she investi- 
 gated productions and exports with an accuracy and 
 a zeal unprecedented in any preceding observation of 
 the conditions there. " The future of Hawaii," she 
 wrote, " is vastly more important to us than the exten- 
 sion of British possessions in South America. The 
 Monroe doctrine, properly interpreted, means that 
 no wrong to republican institutions can be allowed 
 to approach our continent. The danger line is 
 Hawaii, and we refuse to heed the signal." 
 
 Kate Field obtained the first interview with Presi- 
 dent Dole that he had ever granted. " Our sole 
 policy is annexation to the United States," he said 
 to her. Miss Field especially desired to present a 
 true picture of the domestic and material conditions 
 of these islands, as to whether better or worse than 
 before the overthrow of the monarchy. She found 
 day labor and profit-sharing taking the place of the 
 contract system. While the main interest was sugar, 
 she found ranching, wool-growing, rice, fruit and cof- 
 fee production to be the advancing industries. The 
 eight islands with their present population of 100,000 
 are capable of sustaining a million inhabitants. The 
 curious mixture of races fascinated Miss Field's 
 attention, and she graphically depicted street scenes 
 where there met and mingled Jew, Gentile, Portu- 
 guese, Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, and American. 
 She sympathized with everything that made for 
 progress in Honolulu. Appealed to on behalf of 
 free kindergartens, she gave for their benefit her 
 charming lecture, " An Evening with Dickens." 
 
 For the data of her letters she always went to 
 headquarters for information. President Dole, Min- 
 ister Willis, Consul-General Mills, and ex-Minister 
 
Crossing the Bar 537 
 
 Thurston were her personal friends and associates. 
 " Few are they who visit our land and find no wel- 
 come," said a Honolulu writer ; " but few came into so 
 genuine an adoption as that we gladly accorded 
 Kate Field. Our lives were richer for her coming 
 among us ; our days the happier for her smile ; our 
 hopes were stronger for the clear vibrations of her 
 voice." 
 
 Presenting largely her information in the shape of 
 interviews, she was preparing the way to offer her 
 own logical generalizations. She had gathered volu- 
 minous notes in her vigilant methods of going from 
 house to house, so to speak, from island to island, 
 and coming into personal intercourse with all classes 
 of the people. Her letters to the " Times-Herald " 
 were copied by the Honolulu press as soon as re- 
 ceived, and it is recognized that they were bringing 
 to bear the happiest and most effective influence 
 upon the social and political conditions prevailing in 
 the islands. 
 
 In a private letter to a friend she wrote : — 
 
 " I have now been around this island riding and driving, 
 and enjoyed the experience immensely. On the 24th, I 
 sail for Hawaii (another island), where I may remain a 
 month, going around it and visiting the volcano. . . . Any 
 one who thinks these islands can be seen quickly and in- 
 telligently reckons without a host of problems. . . . The 
 islands are eight in number, and I must visit at least three 
 more, Hawaii being the largest, and the home of the great 
 volcano. I hope the goddess Pele will perform for my 
 benefit. If she does n't, the great sensation of the islands 
 will be lost. ... Of one thing you may be assured, — the 
 monarchy can never be restored." 
 
538 Kate Field 
 
 Miss Field's first — and only — Christmas in Hono- 
 lulu was made pleasant to her by dining as the guest 
 of President and Mrs. Dole, whom she greatly es- 
 teemed. The interview with the President, which 
 she had on December lo, was a marvellous political 
 document, and one that will always have weight 
 among the state papers of the country. Of the Pres- 
 ident personally, she said : — 
 
 " Whoever meets Mr. Dole realizes that the noblest 
 work of God is an honest man." 
 
 On that Christmas day she wrote to the friend who 
 was in constant solicitude about her : — 
 
 Honolulu, Dec. 25, 1895. 
 
 Dear , — Accidentally a ship goes to the coast to- 
 day, and I send you a little Xmas greeting. I dine with 
 President and Mrs. Dole, so you see I am not forlorn. 
 People are very hospitable here, and the way my time is 
 taken up is awful for work. I have gained in flesh, and am 
 told I look much better than on arrival. It does not look 
 now as if I 'd return in February as I expected. . . . 
 The climate is soft and the scenery beautiful. No cable 
 and few mails, however, make me feel lost to the world. I 
 enclose mail dates. 
 
 I 've just returned from a visit to the lepers. Very pa- 
 thetic and very interesting. ... I think I 'm in favor of 
 annexation, but shall not make up my mind in a hurry. I 
 only write now to let you know I 'm alive and content 
 enough to stay several months. 
 
 Fancy a Xmas with the thermometer at 76° ! white 
 muslin reigns and mosquitoes make music in the air. But 
 for these pestiferous birds this would be an ideal spot for 
 the tropics. 
 
 I 've written a dozen letters for publication, but only one 
 of them has national importance, — an interview with Presi- 
 
Crossing the Bar 539 
 
 dent Dole. It is the first time he has allowed himself to 
 speak. 
 
 Two of our ships of war are in port, the " Baltimore " and 
 " Bennington." Some of the officers are a great addition 
 to society. 
 
 The best of years for you ! 
 
 Miss Field became at once a favorite in Honolulu. 
 Personally she was always irresistibly winning and 
 magnetic. She was sunny of temper, with an infinite 
 good will, and a keen sense of the ludicrous which 
 never left her. During the winter a f^te was given 
 on the warship " Bennington," lying at Honolulu, to 
 celebrate the arrival of the " Baltimore " from Yoko- 
 hama, a ship that had been overdue for a week. 
 Miss Field wrote of the fete as one that transformed 
 the ship into an Arabian Nights' scene, " translated 
 up to date," and she said : — 
 
 " There never was such a night even in Newport harbor in 
 the balmy month of August. Smooth as a carpet of silver 
 tissue lay the ocean ; still as silence itself was the air that 
 one hardly dare to breathe, lest the spell of enchantment 
 be broken. The lady in the moon looked on with longing 
 eyes, wishing, I fancied, for a partner. Whether in despair 
 she took what she could get and waltzed with that round- 
 faced man who greets us in all latitudes, no one will ever 
 know. Stars shone out of a cloudless sky ; the outlines of 
 verdure-clad mountains formed a wonderful background; 
 while the twinkling lights of Honolulu and the harbor's 
 shipping looked like dancing fireflies." 
 
 Writing from Honolulu at another time, she said in 
 a private letter : — 
 
 " Surrounded by such a lot of water, I have been clinging 
 fondly to all the land in sight, including my beautiful extinct 
 
540 Kate Field 
 
 volcano 'Punch-bowl,' that looks down from the clouds; 
 but, alas ! there seems no such thing as terra firma in this 
 latitude. Last night I lay in bed thinking of the mosqui- 
 toes, whose music was all the sweeter for being outside the 
 bar, when suddenly the deep silence was broken by a 
 strange, uncanny rumbling I had never heard before." 
 
 An incipient earthquake ensued. The hotel quiv- 
 ered like a ship at sea; the bed rocked like a cradle; 
 and she wrote further : — 
 
 " Should I get up and rush into the garden ? (as I am told 
 everybody else did) or should I remain where I was and 
 take the consequences, whatever they might be?" ques- 
 tioned Miss Field. " To and fro rocked the bed ; to and 
 fro rocked the hotel ; creak went everything, and seconds of 
 time became as long as hours. ' Stay where you are,' 
 whispered my astral. Then the rumbling and rocking 
 ceased, and I amazed myself by going to sleep." 
 
 One of Miss Field's most important Hawaiian in- 
 terviews was with Dr. John S. McGrew, formerly of 
 Cincinnati, of whom she said : — 
 
 " Aggressively American, a member of the Loyal Legion, 
 having served through the war as surgeon of the Eighty- 
 third Ohio Regiment, and later as medical director of the 
 Thirteenth Army Corps, Dr. McGrew is the last man in the 
 world to live out of his own country except for cause. 
 When he said he 'd been here twenty-nine years, I ventured 
 to ask why," said Miss Field, adding, with a touch of 
 humor : " A few years ago it was not safe to inquire too 
 closely into the wherefore, in Hawaii, of many Americans. 
 They emigrated more for their country's good than their 
 own." 
 
 Dr. McGrew, however, found his raison d'etre 
 for going to Honolulu in that a man who owed him 
 
Crossing the Bar 541 
 
 $14,000 was there; and while waiting for payment, 
 with his gaze fastened on his debtor, he grew to love 
 the climate and place, and so stayed on. It is he 
 who is called the " Father of Annexation." To Miss 
 Field he said : — 
 
 " One month after my arrival — twenty-nine years ago — 
 I made up my mind that the only way out of trouble was 
 annexation. . . . The Hawaiian rulers were unfit to cope 
 with the problems confronting them, and were the prey of 
 designing white men." 
 
 Miss Field's love of scenery was one of her marked 
 characteristics. She was swiftly responsive to the 
 beautiful in nature or art, and the elusive tricks of 
 meteorological conditions in Hawaii captivated her 
 fancy. One of these she noted as follows : — 
 
 ..." On this charming island rain dropped out of a 
 moonlit sky last night, with less provocation than I ever 
 saw in my somewhat varied life. It did not continue, but 
 why it should have begun will ever remain a mystery. 
 Even as I write a steady patter plays a soothing accompani- 
 ment to the twittering of strange birds. Mountains are as 
 invisible as if they did not exist. Half an hour ago the sun 
 shone with the ardor of tropical growth, and fleecy clouds 
 floated high in the heavens, with no more apparent inten- 
 tion of mischief than I have of getting up a revolution." 
 
 The exasperating conditions resulting from no 
 cable or regular mail service were constantly pre- 
 sented by Miss Field. " No cable, no steamers, no 
 anything 1 " she exclaimed. " I am planted on the 
 only civilized part of the globe which is cut off from 
 the news of the world ! Why? Because the domi- 
 nant power here is American, and Congress is as 
 blind to the future as an owl at noon." 
 
542 Kate Field 
 
 In a press letter under date of Feb. i, 1896, Kate 
 wrote of the island conditions : — 
 
 " The New York ' Sun ' is right in stating that, though 
 prompted by the best intentions, Mr. Spaulding contem- 
 plates too much at a single step. Let Congress advocate 
 annexation, leaving details to be settled hereafter, and the 
 Hawaiian Government will be satisfied. No one that I 
 meet wants Hawaii to be admitted as a State. With their 
 mixed population and peculiar problems, statehood would 
 be a misfortune for these islands. It would be a thorn to 
 our republic. No such idea should be considered. I 
 firmly believe that the best, if not the only way, to rob 
 annexation of perplexity is to give Hawaii a territorial form 
 of government. Congress can do what it pleases with a 
 territory, granting little or no suffrage, according to the cir- 
 cumstances. Look at Alaska. That great country, compris- 
 ing in area one-fifth of the United States, was sold to us in 
 1867 under the condition that its Russian population should 
 enjoy all the rights and privileges of American citizens. It 
 has been shamefully neglected for twenty-nine years. 
 Whites and natives have had no rights that Congress has felt 
 bound to respect. Thirty thousand natives, all of whom are 
 self-supporting, and three thousand whites exist without 
 suffrage, without decent land laws, without a delegate to 
 Congress to make known their wants. Broken-down politi- 
 cians are sent there in the capacity of federal officers, some 
 of whom are good, but most of whom are awful examples 
 of unfitness. The whites, too, often prey on the natives, 
 and the moral condition of a wonderful territory that cost 
 but a cent an acre, and long since paid for itself, smells to 
 heaven. 
 
 " Hawaii, however, is not Alaska. Its population has had 
 a constitutional monarchy for years. Its dominant influence 
 is New England, and no such ignorant misrule as has cursed 
 Alaska would be tolerated twenty-four hours. 
 
Crossing the Bar 543 
 
 " What, then, would be feasible ? Such a form of govern- 
 ment as makes the District of Columbia the best-regulated 
 section of our republic. A system that is good enough for 
 250,000 American citizens, 80,000 of whom are negroes, is 
 good enough for 90,000 residents of Hawaii, 40,000 of 
 whom are Kanakas and 30,000 are non-voting Asiatics. The 
 ruling white element would gladly give up suffrage for the 
 sake of a system best calculated to harmonize all interests 
 and bring about the most beneficent results. When no one 
 has a vote, jealousy becomes impossible, and greedy, un- 
 scrupulous politicians are held at bay. To place these 
 islands under the control of a commission appointed by the 
 President, with the consent of Congress, said commission 
 to be composed of five men, three of whom should be 
 bom here, would meet the exigencies of the case, I verily 
 believe." 
 
 This extract is typical of the statistical accuracy, 
 the wide grasp of comparative facts, the keen obser- 
 vation and the catholicity of spirit that characterized 
 Kate Field's letters from Hawaii. They photograph 
 the conditions of 1895-96; those conditions which, in 
 less than five years, have so swiftly evolved into new 
 phases and reached results largely due to Miss Field's 
 power of creating public opinion. Under date of 
 Jan. 9, 1886, the " Commercial Advertiser" of Hono- 
 lulu, devoting an editorial to Kate's work, closed 
 with the words : " Miss Field's letters will be widely 
 read and copied, and will have a very excellent effect 
 upon the future of the islands." Under the date of 
 January 31, the same journal said editorially: — 
 
 " Kate Field's past record has proved beyond question 
 that when she once grapples with a political problem she 
 does not allow the ink to dry in her pen until she has ac- 
 complished tangible results. In her work in this country 
 
544 Kate Field 
 
 Miss Field has certainly shown that she has lost none of the 
 old-time ability that first brought her into prominence as a 
 moulder of political minds through the medium of the news- 
 papers. Although even her best friends do not always agree 
 with her, they have found that, notwithstanding what are put 
 down as her peculiar ideas, she works along the line of good 
 common sense and sound principle. 
 
 " Her interview with President Dole has done more to 
 set this Government before the American people in its true 
 light than anything that has thus far been written." 
 
 Both officially and personally the opinions ex- 
 pressed by the Hawaiians of Miss Field were such as 
 to indicate the impression that her truth and fairness, 
 as well as her conspicuous ability, made upon them. 
 Her letters were very racy and graphic as well as 
 analytic. One, in particular, in which she described 
 an auction sale of royal relics, is inimitable. She 
 persistently advocated the cable, that is now almost a 
 fait accompli. 
 
 Among the pleasant social interludes for Miss 
 Field was when Hon. and Mrs. P. C. Jones carried her 
 off to their country house, seventeen miles from 
 Honolulu, in a romantically beautiful spot surrounded 
 with mountains save on one side, where they look out 
 on the Pacific. Here she went out among the natives, 
 visiting the schools and talking with them, and so 
 won their hearts that as she was leaving they gath- 
 ered around her with long garlands, with which they 
 wreathed her, and called her " Kala wahine nananao," 
 — the Learned Woman. 
 
 In midwinter, hearing that the volcano on the 
 island of Hawaii had become active, she was anxious 
 to go to it, " but," she writes to a friend, — 
 
Crossing the Bar 545 
 
 " events occurred that prevented, and now I 've decided 
 not to go until I 'm ready to leave this island. It looks as 
 if I might remain several months longer. Then what will 
 happen I don't know. Japan? I can't say. I live from 
 day to day and think as little as possible of the future. It 
 is my only salvation." . . . 
 
 Again, to the same friend she writes : — 
 
 " Life here is one long summer day with mosquitoes 
 thrown in. I don't think women's clubs are worse than 
 mosquitoes, as you believe, because you can ignore clubs, 
 and mosquitoes won't let you alone night or day. How- 
 ever, there 's a deal to interest here as long as the political 
 situation remains doubtful. . . . 
 
 " The climate in the island of Hawaii is said to be more 
 bracing, and I may remain there a month, writing meanwhile 
 and reading. After those come the islands of Maui and 
 Kauai. Then I must look into the conditions of Japanese, 
 Chinese, Portuguese, all of whom swarm here and are 
 crowding out natives and whites. It 's a very serious prob- 
 lem, this Asiatic invasion, and bodes no good to the United 
 States." 
 
 Living always intensely in the present, de jour au 
 jour, Kate entered closely into the life of the island. 
 She dined, lunched, and drove with friends continu- 
 ally. She was not strong, but she was buoyant and 
 hopeful and interested in everything. She would 
 question the natives on their desires and feelings, and 
 by the aid of an interpreter would talk with them to 
 a great extent. She visited the schools and talked 
 with the children, most of whom were being in- 
 structed in EngHsh, and with whom she could thus 
 speak directly. Everything in customs and manners 
 
 35 
 
546 Kate Field 
 
 caught her eager eye. One of the last things she did 
 before leaving Honolulu was again to give her lecture 
 on Charles Dickens for the benefit of the free 
 kindergarten. 
 
 Driving one day in an open carriage, Kate saw a 
 young Kanaka girl clad only in the short white gown, 
 barely reaching the knees, that the women of that 
 island wear. Miss Field stopped the driver and 
 beckoned to the girl. " Will you drive with me, my 
 dear?" she asked. The bewildered girl cast down 
 her eyes, abashed, but after a moment stepped into 
 the carriage. It was the first drive of her hard and 
 meagre life ; and Miss Field took her off on a glorious 
 round to the Waikiki beach, and thence drove the 
 girl to her own home, a hut in Iwilei, on the outskirts 
 of Honolulu. 
 
 In the sincerity and thoroughness of her work, Kate 
 never missed an opportunity of friendly and familiar 
 intercourse with the natives. She knew how to ask 
 questions, and her friendly interest in them won their 
 hearts. She attended a memorial meeting for Hoapili, 
 a chief, and after it was over she herself addressed 
 the natives, Mr. Mueller interpreting. She told 
 them first that she was an American and that she 
 had come in the interests of her country. " Next to 
 that," she continued, " I want what- is best for you 
 Hawaiians, natives of the soil." She advised them to 
 hold to their homes. " In three things," she said, 
 " no one can equal you, ■ — as horsemen, fishermen, 
 and freemen. You must not let any nation take these 
 from you. I know the present government cares for 
 you. President Dole has a great aloha for you, as 
 I learn from many talks with him. Your ' aloha ' is 
 one of the most beautiful words I have ever heard." 
 
Crossing the Bar 547 
 
 The natives listened to her with the closest and 
 with intelligent attention, and at the close pressed 
 around her, shaking hands heartily and greeting her 
 with a chorus of alohas. 
 
 Writing, in a press letter, of a New England man, 
 she said : — 
 
 " Find a progressive citizen of Hawaii, and you will find a 
 Yankee. One of these Yankees is B. F. Dillingham, who 
 not long ago was called crazy because he actually induced 
 local capitalists to help him build the only railroad on this 
 island, and the third railroad on all the islands. The first 
 originated with another Yankee, S. G. Wilder, who built 
 what is said to be the crookedest railroad on earth. For 
 twenty miles, this iron, narrow-gauge snake twists and turns 
 up and down the island of Hawaii, tapping sugar planta- 
 tions and cattle ranges, and bringing their products to the 
 sea for shipping. When Mr. Wilder died, a deal of intelli- 
 gent energy was lost to this country. 
 
 "Born on Cape Cod, sailing before the mast for love of 
 the sea, captured by the ' Florida' off Brazil in 1863, and 
 experiencing all the hardships of a prisoner of war when a 
 mere lad, Dillingham persisted in a life on the ocean wave, 
 until fate lured him to Honolulu, where he anchored in 
 1866, and has resided ever since, engaging in mercantile 
 business. In 1885 Mr. Dillingham secured a railroad 
 franchise, issued and sold bonds at par to build the first 
 fifteen miles, and invested every dollar in the enterprise, 
 the limit of the issue being ^300,000. When sufficient 
 land was acquired to exceed in value double the amount of 
 the bonds already taken, second mortgage bonds were put 
 on the market. This sort of financiering is not frequent, 
 more 's the pity." 
 
 When she resolved on leaving for a tour through 
 the other islands of Maui, Lanai, and Hawaii, all of her 
 
548 Kate Field 
 
 friends endeavored to dissuade her; it was so evident 
 that she was in no state of health to undertake these 
 hardships. But their counsel had no effect. To a 
 friend in this country she wrote under date of 
 March 18: — 
 
 " Since I wrote last I 've been round this island, riding 
 and driving, and enjoyed the experience immensely. Next 
 Tuesday, March 24, I sail for Hawaii, where I may remain 
 a month, going round the island on horseback and visiting 
 the volcano. Then I go over the island of Maui (D. V.) 
 before returning here. This done, I have Kauai to visit. 
 Any one who thinks these islands can be done quickly and 
 intelligently reckons without a host of problems." 
 
 So she sailed away, embarking on a voyage 
 which was to end only in the unseen realm. Her 
 faithfulness and devotion to her work prefigured 
 themselves fairly as a tragedy to those who were 
 about her in her last days. " Oh, the pathos of it 
 all," wrote Miss Anna Paris, who accompanied her 
 on her last journey of investigation, — "the lonely 
 coast, the eager, burning desire to see everything, the 
 struggle for strength, the final enforced giving up of 
 her effort. . . . She gave herself no rest. There 
 was so much of interest to be seen, and the time was 
 short. She talked with the Hawaiians, visited the 
 schools, and made an address in the old church. 
 Sand, heat, and distance counted for nothing. The 
 old relics of Kamehameha, the hijons, the native vil- 
 lages, all interested her deeply." 
 
 The time was so short ; ah, yes, how short those 
 who watched her little dreamed 1 A pencilled note 
 written to a friend on March 28 said : — 
 
Crossing the Bar 549 
 
 " I 'm at last on the road to the volcano, but as the 
 distance by road is 30 miles, and as the journey must be 
 made in the saddle and will take several days, you can imag- 
 ine I 'm as far from it as Omaha is from N. Y. I reached 
 Hilo after the worst sea voyage I ever took, . . . but now 
 I 'm in this strange land among natives, I 'm very glad I 
 came." 
 
 Leaving Hilo, she passed a week in Puna in the 
 hospitable house of Mr. Rufus Lyman, to whom ex- 
 Minister Jones had given her a letter. Mrs. Lyman 
 made opportunities for her to meet the natives, whom 
 she found intelligent and sympathetic, and they were 
 so appreciative of her kindness as to overwhelm her 
 with gifts. Journeying on, and stopping at the plan- 
 tations of Mr. Rycroft and Mr. C. J. Wight, where 
 hospitality and kindness surrounded her, she fared 
 forth again to sleep one night in a grass house, 
 which she wrote of to a friend as an " interesting sen- 
 sation." Even then her illness was alarmingly ap- 
 parent, but she gave it no heed. Going on, still on 
 horseback, she reached Kailua ; but before her lay a 
 long lonely region teeming with historic associations 
 and an interesting native population. To see and 
 realize all that was here was her ardent desire. Yet 
 mysterious gleams of prescience seemed around her, 
 and more than once she remarked to Miss Paris, " It 
 is the unexpected that happens." While at Kawai- 
 hae her strength failed entirely. On the Sunday 
 afternoon of May 17, she lay on a couch on a piazza, 
 gazing silently afar on the sea. Something was said 
 of death in a general way by one of the family, and 
 Miss Field turned and remarked with deep serious- 
 ness, " Say what you will, it is a great change, — a 
 great change," she added dreamily. On this day 
 
550 Kate Field 
 
 (hardly forty-eight hours before her death) she 
 yielded to the urgency of her friends to decide to 
 return to Honolulu instead of pursuing her way up 
 the mountain to the Volcano House, where she had 
 already engaged rooms. There was about her an 
 exquisite gentleness; and a reliance on others un- 
 known before in all her active life. The next morn- 
 ing she sat up on her couch writing incessantly until 
 the horses were ready to convey herself and Miss 
 Paris to the boat which made the tour of the islands 
 to and from Honolulu. 
 
 Another most significant link in this chain of events 
 is that on this local steamer which plied about the 
 islands, there were Prof and Mrs. David P. Todd of 
 Amherst College, Dr. Adriance of New York, and 
 other friends. • For it chanced — does anything 
 chance? — that Professor Todd with his wife and his 
 party of the " Amherst Eclipse Expedition " were on 
 their way to Japan in a yacht to observe the total 
 solar eclipse due on August 9, 1896. Stopping at 
 Hawaii, they were making the tour of the islands on 
 the local steamer, leaving their yacht anchored at 
 Honolulu ; and although they and Miss Field had 
 not met personally, the names of each were, of course, 
 familiar to the other, and the brave, devoted woman 
 whose hands for the first time in her life fell helpless 
 before her work, was met by her own country people, 
 and by those capable of giving her not only care and 
 aid, but sympathetic companionship as well. To 
 those who loved her and were away at this supreme 
 hour the comfort that this tenderness and sweetest 
 companionship were about her is ineffable. And not 
 this alone, but that there was with her in her last 
 hours on earth a woman whose special literary gift 
 
Crossing the Bar 551 
 
 could record the story makes gratitude complete. It 
 is an impressive fact that the one of Miss Field's own 
 country-women to be with her should have been, — 
 not only the kind and lovely friend, but the pro- 
 fessional woman of letters whose pen could photo- 
 graph and thus preserve the closing scenes of the life 
 of Kate Field. 
 
 Miss Paris hastened to make Miss Field as com- 
 fortable as possible in her state-room, and Mrs. Todd 
 went in to see her, receiving a warm greeting. 
 
 " Oh," exclaimed Miss Field, " it is such a comfort 
 to be on a boat again, though I usually hate a boat ; 
 but to be going somewhere actually again and to 
 see white people once more, and up-to-date white 
 people at that. I am only tired all out," she con- 
 tinued ; " yes, I am too tired to do any more just 
 now." 
 
 " She lay back with her cheeks very pink," Mrs. 
 Todd related afterward, " and began to ask me ques- 
 tions about our expedition to Japan, in which she 
 seemed greatly interested. Her mind continually 
 went back to her work, however, and the social and 
 political state of Hawaii. ' They are lovely, amicable 
 people,' she said. 'I 've enjoyed Hawaii.' " 
 
 Dr. Adriance visited and prescribed for her, and at 
 once realized how critically ill with pneumonia she 
 was. "For the last two weeks," he said, "she has 
 not been able to sit up, and yet she has been riding 
 on horseback over lava-fields ! " 
 
 Once she half murmured the line, " He giveth His 
 beloved sleep." " Yes, sleep," added the exhausted 
 voice, while the little hot hands fell helpless by her 
 side. That poem of Mrs. Browning's had always 
 been a favorite with her, and the line she repeated 
 
552 Kate Field 
 
 was the one she had chosen for the inscription on her 
 mother's tomb. 
 
 Toward evening some native Hawaiians began sing- 
 ing on deck outside her window, accompanying them- 
 selves on the guitar and the native ukuleli. She was 
 asked if it disturbed her. 
 
 "Oh, no," she repHed; "music is Paradise to 
 me." 
 
 With her in her state-room and lying by her side, 
 was a copy of Charles Warren Stoddard's " Hawaiian 
 Life," — the last book her hand ever touched. Af- 
 terward Miss Paris very kindly gave the little volume 
 to the friend who, of all on earth, held Kate in the 
 most tender and devoted love. 
 
 The constant care and skill of Dr. Adriance was 
 about her through the night, but the morning re- 
 vealed to him that she had but a few hours more on 
 earth. Mrs. Todd undertook the sad office of telling 
 her this and prepared to write any messages, but the 
 dreaminess and bewilderment of the change was 
 already upon her. Once Kate opened her eyes sud- 
 denly as the steamer was passing Maui, where the 
 rugged cliffs stand out, and the blue sea, covered with 
 white-caps, dashed against the rocks. " Oh, how 
 beautiful ! " she exclaimed, and again sinking into 
 dreamy unconsciousness she asked of Mrs. Todd : 
 " What did you say is the name of your expedi- 
 tion, and what are you going for?" and as Mrs. 
 Todd replied Kate repeated brightly, " The Am- 
 herst Eclipse Expedition ! " These were her last 
 words. 
 
 Were they not, indeed, the fitting words for one 
 whose whole life had been a quest of knowledge? 
 who had lived in such daily consciousness of the Un- 
 
Crossing the Bar 553 
 
 seen and such absolute realization of the companion- 
 ships of those in that realm, and of the Divine love 
 and care, that the passing over the faint line that 
 divides the two conditions of life had for her no ter- 
 ror, but only joy and peace. In those last hours she 
 had comforters whom the kind friends about her saw 
 not, sustaining and guiding her release. The two 
 worlds are so interpenetrated, and she had always 
 lived partly in both, and had always partaken of the 
 greater significance of the pure life of the spirit. All 
 her life had been a quest. Always had she fared 
 forth on new expeditions in search of light and truth. 
 The riddle of progress haunted her eager mind. Her 
 infinite energy, her exquisite taste, her noble and 
 generous aspirations, leave their lasting impress. 
 
 The steamer flew on over the foam-crested waves 
 sparkling under the golden May sunshine, and the 
 blue eyes were closed and the little wasted hands 
 lay idly by her side. Perchance to her thoughts then 
 came lines she had long since loved, — lines written 
 by the beloved poet-friend, Mrs. Browning: — 
 
 " If God compel thee to this destiny, 
 To die alone — with none beside thy bed. 
 
 Pray then alone — ' O Christ, come tenderly! 
 
 No earthly friend being near me, interpose 
 No deathly angel 'twixt my face and Thine, 
 But stoop Thyself to gather my life's rose 
 And smile away my mortal to Divine.' " 
 
 While the pathos of this passing touches every 
 heart, — yet its poetic beauty, its unique loveliness 
 that so repeated the unique quality of her entire life, 
 makes it as distinctive as it was beautiful. 
 
554 Kate Field 
 
 Though consciousness did not return, Kate lived 
 until after she was tenderly carried from the steamer 
 into the house of Dr. and Mrs. McGrew in Honolulu. 
 It was one of the homes where she had passed many a 
 pleasant social hour, and an interview with Dr. McGrew 
 had been among the most interesting of her press 
 letters. About two o'clock on the afternoon of May 
 19, 1896, her spirit took its flight. Just before her 
 last breath, she opened her blue eyes and looked 
 up at Mrs. McGrew, who was bending over her, 
 smiled, and with one fluttering sigh Kate Field had 
 rejoined her idolized father and mother, and gone 
 out and on to the fairer realm which, though unseen, 
 is still so near. 
 
 No words can in any wise interpret the pathos of 
 these last scenes, but they had the distinction and the 
 unusual quality which made a fitting close to her 
 remarkable life. 
 
 " I am going home to-night, 
 Out of blindness into sight; 
 Out of weakness, war, and pain 
 Into power, peace, and gain; 
 Out of Winter gale and gloom 
 Into Summer breath and bloom; 
 From the wand'rings of the past 
 I am going home at last. 
 
 " Kiss my lips and let me go; 
 Nearer swells the solemn flow 
 Of the wondrous stream that rolls 
 By the borderland of souls. 
 I can catch sweet strains of songs 
 Floating down from distant throngs, 
 And can feel the touch of hands 
 Reaching out from angel bands. 
 
Crossing the Bar 555 
 
 " Anger's frown and envj- s thrust, 
 Friendship chilled by cold distrust, 
 Sleepless night and weary mom, 
 Toil in fruitless land forlorn, 
 Aching head and breaking heart. 
 Love destroyed by slander's dart, 
 Drifting ship and darkened sea, 
 Over there will righted be." 
 
 These beautiful lines of James G. Clark recur to the 
 memory when picturing the return of Kate Field to 
 the fairer world beyond. 
 
 The slender form from which she had gone was 
 clad in a silvery blue robe of silken tissue which the 
 friend, to whom of all on earth she was dearest, had 
 sent her as the last Christmas gift. Who shall say 
 that she herself did not guide the stranger hands that 
 opened her wardrobe? Among the rings taken from 
 her hand was a little worn gold circlet, — the wed- 
 ding ring of her mother, which Kate had withdrawn 
 from ^Irs. Field's hand when she died at sea in the 
 May of just twenty-five years before. In her will, as 
 before mentioned, Kate had directed that her body 
 should be cremated and this little ring placed with 
 the ashes in the urn, — a wish which was afterwards 
 entirely fulfilled. 
 
 The body was placed in a casket embowered with 
 flowers, and over it was draped the stars and stripes, 
 — a fit emblem for one with whom patriotism was a 
 passion. The church where the last rites were held 
 was filled with official representatives of many nations. 
 Hither came the most distinguished men and women 
 of the Hawaiian capital. Though far from her 
 native land. Miss Field passed away among fervent 
 friends and admirers. Her genius was not for 
 
556 Kate Field 
 
 one race, nor her fame for one people, and the 
 gathering at Honolulu was a remarkable tribute to 
 the American woman. Representatives of the United 
 States gave forcible expression to the admiration of 
 the American people for the dauntless spirit that had 
 led in so many movements for the betterment of the 
 race. Officials of the Republic in the far Pacific 
 islands testified their respect for the scholar, the 
 thinker, who took truth as her only guide and beacon. 
 More personal, perhaps, were the tributes of women 
 of prominence and the representatives of other na- 
 tions. All united to pay honor to the memory of 
 the noble soul that had fled its slender tenement of 
 clay. They buried the casket in fragrant blossoms. 
 The President and Mrs. Dole sent a wreath of lilies 
 and palm leaves ; the press, a booklet of red, white, 
 and blue flowers ; and the entire altar was a bower 
 of floral fragrance, with its myriad offerings. 
 
 The minister of the church, Rev. D. P. Birnie, 
 read the solemn service, and a quartette rendered 
 exquisitely " Jesus, Lover of my Soul " and Cardinal 
 Newman's touching hymn, " Lead, Kindly Light." 
 While the little flower-heaped casket was tenderly 
 borne from the church, the organist played " Home, 
 Sweet Home," and the tears came to every eye. 
 
 The pall-bearers were Ellis Mills, Charg^ d'Affaires 
 for the United States ; L. A. Thurston, ex-Minister 
 from Hawaii to the United States ; William R. Castle, 
 ex-Minister from Hawaii to the United States ; W. 
 Porter Boyd, Vice-Consul-General ; Dr. J. S. McGrew 
 and Wallace R. Farrington, Editor of the " Honolulu 
 Advertiser." As the cortege approached the ceme- 
 tery, the Hawaiian Band, stationed near the vault, 
 expressed the common grief in a dirge. 
 
Crossing the Bar 557 
 
 The casket was laid in the vault of a friend at 
 Nuuanu cemetery. It had been decorated with 
 flowers, and across the wall at the head of the casket 
 was draped the American flag. To these decorations 
 were added the flowers sent to the church, making a 
 veritable bed of blossoms for the casket. The choir 
 sang the last hymn. Dr. Birnie said the last prayer, 
 and the door of the tomb was closed, awaiting the 
 sending of the casket to America. Among those 
 present at these ceremonies were President Dole of 
 the Hawaiian Republic, Minister of Foreign Affairs 
 Henry E. Cooper, Chief Justice A. F. Judd, Associate 
 Justice Frear, Vice-President W. C. Wilder, Colonel 
 R. H. McLain, Commander Watson of the U. S. S. 
 "Adams; " Judge Hartwell, A. de Souza, Canavarro, 
 Charge d' Affaires, Portugal ; Major George C. Potter, 
 A. St. M. Mackintosh, Monsieur Vizzevona, Charge 
 d' Affaires France; Senator McCandless, officials of 
 the various departments of the Hawaiian Govern- 
 ment, members of the consular corps, members of the 
 legislature, and representatives of the press. 
 
 The beauty equals the pathos of the closing chapter 
 of Kate Field's life on earth. " This is not the end ; 
 the end is never," one could almost hear her say. 
 She was spared old age; she was withdrawn from 
 experiences of ceaseless struggle, because of ceaseless 
 aspiration ; and though the great work of her life 
 seemed unfinished, she "passed on to complete it in 
 a different way and from a higher plane of energy. 
 Could she have chosen, it would have been to go in 
 this swift, simple, and poetic way to the new life whose 
 reality she well knew. There was no illness, so to 
 speak; no period of inactivity. All the morning 
 of May 18 she was writing, until at twelve she 
 
558 Kate Field 
 
 went on board the steamer; about five in the after- 
 noon she appeared on deck, but obeyed immediately 
 the gentle and wise counsel of Dr. Adriance to 
 return to her room; and at two o'clock on the next 
 afternoon she had entered on the life more abund- 
 ant. It was more like translation than death, and 
 she would herself have only urged courage and good 
 cheer on all who follow her with tender devotion 
 to the Unseen. She would have only inspired new 
 endeavor, and invoked that noble spirit which breathes 
 through these lines of Theocritus ; — 
 
 " A shipwrecked sailor buried on this coast 
 Bids you set sail ; 
 Full many a gallant ship when we were lost 
 Weathered the gale." 
 
IN RETROSPECT 
 
 PARADISI GLORIA 
 
 " O frate mio ! ciascuna 6 cittadina 
 D 'una vera cittk" .... 
 
 There is a city, builded by no hand, 
 
 And unapproachable by sea or shore, 
 And unassailable by any band 
 
 Of storming soldiery for evermore. 
 
 There we no longer shall divide our time 
 By acts or pleasures, — doing petty things 
 
 Of work or warfare, merchandise or rhyme ; 
 But we shall sit beside the silver springs 
 
 That flow from God's own footstool, and behold 
 Sages and martyrs, and those blessed few 
 
 Who loved us once and were beloved of old, 
 To dwell with them and walk with them anew. 
 
 In alternations of sublime repose. 
 
 Musical motion, the perpetual play 
 Of every faculty that Heaven bestows 
 
 Through the bright, busy, and eternal day. 
 
 Thomas William Parsons. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 What matters how or from what ground 
 The freed soul its Creator found ? 
 Alike thy memory embalms 
 That orange-grove, that isle of palms. 
 
 Emerson. 
 
 " Glory to God — to God," he saith; 
 " Knowledge by suffering entereth, 
 And Life is perfected by Death. " 
 
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
 
 Still veiled in flesh, her soul shone through that veil, which grew more and 
 more transparent day by day. The progress of the spirit piercing the last 
 obstacle between itself and the Infinite was called an illness ; the hour of life 
 was called death. Balzac. 
 
 One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward; 
 
 Never doubted clouds would break ; 
 Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph : 
 Held, we fall to rise again ; are bafHed, to fight better ; 
 Sleep, to wake I 
 
 Robert BROvyNiNG. 
 
 In Retrospect. Universal Appreciation and Love. The 
 Strange Ordering of Circumstance. A Sculptured 
 Cross in Mount Auburn. Death only an Event in 
 Life. 
 
 AMONG those wonderful, glowing translations 
 from Oriental poetry made by Emerson is the 
 " Song of Seyd Nimetallah of Kuhistan." It is an 
 intense bewildering measure, and in it are these lines 
 which contain, in essence, a complete interpretation 
 of the life of Kate Field. 
 
 36 
 
562 Kate Field 
 
 " From the shore of souls arrived, 
 In the sea of sense I dived ; 
 But what is land or what is wave, 
 To me, who only jewels crave ? 
 Love is the air-fed fire intense 
 And my heart the frankincense : 
 As the rich aloes flames, I glow. 
 Yet the censer cannot know. 
 I 'm all-knowing, yet unknowing: 
 Stand not, pause not, in my going." 
 
 " From the shore of souls arrived " Kate Field 
 dived with a swift intensity into the " sea of sense," 
 seeking ever the soul of things, caring little for 
 processes, caring everything for results. She had 
 that endurance which is the assertion of the spirit 
 over the flesh ; she had the crystal clearness of abso- 
 lute truth, of flawless integrity ; she had such persis- 
 tence of energy that even after death had set his seal 
 upon her, she wrote for hours, and rode on horse- 
 back to the steamer on which her last earthly voyage 
 was made. She was indomitable in energy. Flame 
 might freeze, or ice might boil, before she would have 
 relinquished a purpose. Yet when this flying aim 
 was once caught she bade it go, and turned to an- 
 other. Margaret Sullivan said of her : — 
 
 " A virtuoso in music ; at one time on the stage ; an 
 authentic and charming interpreter of literature, — her very 
 versatility, like an excess of riches, lured her from one 
 domain into another ; so that, leaving proof in many of 
 individual genius, she may have done herself injustice by not 
 adopting a single profession and dedicating her life to it." 
 
 More than once during her life here this problem 
 of Kate's versatility of nature was discussed and some- 
 times pressed upon her; and on one occasion she 
 
In Retrospect 563 
 
 thus replied in a private letter to some question 
 regarding it : — 
 
 " If anybody is clever enough to tell me what is surely 
 lasting I 'd like to know out of curiosity. A few beings 
 in this world have written what all the centuries desire 
 to read : Homer, Virgil, Goethe, Montaigne, Cervantes, 
 Shakespeare, Dante, Tasso, and half a dozen other geniuses 
 constitute what to my mind is ' lasting ' in literature. What 
 difference does it make whether we are remembered or 
 not? The ambition that thirsts for praise is, in my 
 opinion, beneath contempt. Shakespeare wrote plays for 
 his theatre because he was impelled to write them, and not 
 because of posterity, — an animal I '11 wager he never 
 dreamed of. The only noble ambition is the desire to be 
 fully one's self, to act out one"s whole nature ; and if that 
 nature leads one into more than one path, I see no reason 
 to wail. If by walking a tow-path a man or woman does 
 one thing that is remembered twenty years longer than the 
 varied work of a human being who has had the pleasure of 
 many experiences and the expansion and friendships and 
 loves that come with these experiences, I personally see no 
 gain to the individual, — au contraire. But I deny that 
 versatility must necessarily be shallow. The trouble is not 
 on account of superficiality, but because of the want of 
 time to carry out many ideas. But what of that ? Have 
 we not all eternity before us ? — if there be another life, as 
 I believe. We learn our lessons here to begin a broad 
 career hereafter, and the one idea'd person may find him- 
 self obliged to go to school again in another world before 
 taking his degree. My dear friend, Americans are the 
 least tolerant of ' versatility ' of any people on earth, and it 
 is probably due to the hardness of life in a new world. It 
 requires so much exhausting work to make a living at one 
 thing that half-educated souls can't believe in the sound- 
 ness of those who turn from one art or profession to an- 
 
564 Kate Field 
 
 other in sympathy with it. And yet Americans contradict 
 themselves by being a doctor one year and a merchant the 
 next ; a banker one day and a diplomatist the day after ; a 
 soldier for five years and a lawyer forever after, until the 
 speculator supplants both. The trouble with most critics is 
 that they are led by early prejudices and not by reason." 
 
 Nothing could have been less possible — given 
 the peculiar combination of qualities that made 
 up the unique personality called Kate Field — than 
 that she should devote herself to any one aim alone. 
 She had, pre-eminently, the inspirational tempera- 
 ment. She was subject to a thousand heats and 
 chills; and the victim or victor, as might be, of a 
 thousand subtle influences and nuances of impression 
 which no psychologist has yet classified in his human 
 laboratory. In a private letter to a friend in June of 
 1888, she said: — 
 
 As to being helped in writing, I 'm almost sure of it. I 
 never know in advance what I 'm going to say. In fact, 
 I approach every subject with fear and trembling, and 
 am always astounded when anything comes. Inspiration 
 means something or nothing. If it means something, it 
 means that a spiritual influence obsesses the mortal intel- 
 lect. It always seems to me idiotic for people to be con- 
 ceited about their own achievements, when so much is due 
 to unknown influences. 
 
 Miss Field had indeed, as has before been noted, 
 the most abiding and profound realization of what 
 Emerson so well calls " the flowing conditions of 
 life." In the series of private letters to the friend 
 which has given the most intimate revelations of her 
 
In Retrospect 565 
 
 daily life she was constantly making such expressions 
 as these : — 
 
 "Life is too short to accomplish anything;" "I am 
 convinced that we shall enjoy ourselves hereafter by having 
 what we call happiness repeated in a finer tone." 
 
 And again: — 
 
 " You must let me care for you in my way, which, had 1 
 the power, would be very tangible. Unfortunately I 'm not 
 able to carry out my desires. When we meet where gold 
 is not the current coin, you '11 know my real self better." 
 
 When Mr. Edwin P. Whipple died she wrote to this 
 friend : — 
 
 " I know that Mrs. Whipple will show her love for her 
 husband by loving humanity. I have no patience with 
 those who nurse their grief and prove their faith in Chris- 
 tianity by acting as though there were no life or hope 
 beyond mortality." 
 
 On the death of the poet, Mr. Boyle O'Reilly, she 
 wrote ; — 
 
 " Boyle O'Reilly is to be envied his sudden taking off, it 
 seems to me. It is hard to live, — harder than to die, I 
 think." 
 
 In a memorial tribute to her old and near friend 
 Mrs. Anne Lynch Botta, Kate said editorially, in her 
 journal : — 
 
 " I want many who never knew her, or knew her super- 
 ficially, to realize the sweetness of her character ; for, after 
 all, it is character, not reputation, that makes the real 
 human being. 
 
 " ' Did you ever notice how much of Christ's life was 
 spent simply in doing kind things?' asks Drummond. 
 
566 Kate Field 
 
 Therein lay the greatness of Mrs. Botta's life. She was 
 perpetually doing kind things for everybody, regardless of 
 thanks or gratitude, beaming like the sun upon the just and 
 unjust, conscious of her own good-will, unconscious, if 
 possible, of slight or malice. I have never known man or 
 woman so eager for the truth, whatever it might be ; so 
 ready to receive the light, no matter whence it came ; so 
 humble in her own esteem ; so ready to praise friend and 
 foe when praise was due. The latch-string of her heart 
 and head, as of her hospitable door, was always out. . . . 
 I hear a gentle, kind voice whisper to those who mourn 
 her sudden taking oif : ' Courage ; the end ■ is not yet. 
 The end is never ! ' " 
 
 Numberless pages could be filled w^ith transcrip- 
 tions of Kate Field's expressions of the vitality of 
 her faith in God and Immortality. When Wendell 
 Phillips died she wrote in a private letter: — 
 
 " It is no matter now that Wendell Phillips has passed 
 away. He had done his great work and needed a radical 
 change of atmosphere to begin anew. He has now got it ! 
 He did me worlds of good when I was a young girl, and 
 helped to make me a radical. My uncle was the worst sort 
 of Democrat." 
 
 A number of years ago there was a literary project, 
 more or less pleasantly fulfilled, of publishing a book 
 containing the biographies of prominent women still 
 living. When Kate was asked to permit her own to 
 be included, she wrote to a friend : — 
 
 " The difference between a life in a book and a news- 
 paper sketch is very great. When I die — if between now 
 and then I do anything worthy of record — my life can be 
 taken. While alive, I contend that lives in books are 
 absurd." 
 
In Retrospect 567 
 
 The time now seems to have come in which even 
 her own faultless taste would perhaps concede that 
 her biography might be written. 
 
 It is interesting also, in this retrospective view of 
 her life on earth, to read an analysis of her character 
 made, when she was about thirty, by the well-known 
 phrenologists, Messrs. Fowler and Wells, who thus 
 defined her nature : — 
 
 "You possess a remarkable organization, and are evi- 
 dently your father's child, inheriting many of his peculiari- 
 ties, — his love of liberty, sense of independence, his desire 
 for knowledge, his ambition, resolution, and executiveness. 
 You probably have the mother's sensitiveness, sympathy, and 
 affection, combining therefore the qualities of both parents 
 in yourself, but the spirit of the father predominates. 
 
 " You should be known, first, for your imagination ; you 
 live much in the spheres above ; are not as much wedded 
 to the world as many, and it gives you more pleasure to 
 live in the ethereal realms than here. 
 
 "You have a psychological nature, and foFesee what is 
 about to transpire ; something of a second sight, and are 
 prophetic. You have visions even when wide awake, and 
 can hear the angels whisper. 
 
 " You may not compose music, you may not write poetry, 
 but your soul is full of them. You revel in art and have 
 abilities in this direction. 
 
 " You are original rather than imitative, though you can 
 readily take on the ways and manners of others, and adapt 
 yourself to almost any condition, but you are original in 
 striking out a course for yourself, and can never be swal- 
 lowed up or absorbed by others. You are creative, full of 
 schemes, plans, projects, and full of mental resources. 
 You may not be able to put all your purposes into execu- 
 tion, but you are most prolific of ideas. 
 
568 Kate Field 
 
 " Intellectually you have always been a good observer, but 
 a better thinker, quick to see, quick to look into new things, 
 fond of travelling, easily informed, but more inclined to 
 meditate, to inquire into the why, wherefore, and cause of 
 things. The fact is not enough for you, but you must know 
 the principles, and from a child up you have been full of 
 questions, many of which were unanswered, and never can 
 be in this world. 
 
 " You are also very spirited, resolute, and executive ; and 
 if the bodily powers were equal to the mental desires, you 
 would perform great things, but the meiital machinery is far 
 greater than the framework, and you become exhausted 
 before you finish what you undertake." . . . 
 
 The entire analysis, which is very long, is curiously 
 accurate. Alluding to her individuality, the writer 
 said, " You will be misunderstood by many, misin- 
 terpreted by some, and will be a puzzle to all." 
 These words were fulfilled. Sensitive to a fault, 
 Kate's life was something of that spiritual tragedy 
 which results when such a spirit beats against the 
 adverse conditions of this world. She was the artist 
 born, and both by gifts and grace this temperament 
 dominated her. Yet another phase of her nature, 
 equally strong and from force of circumstances more 
 largely in evidence, was her intense interest in affairs 
 and her objective life. Sometimes she expressed her 
 weariness of practical affairs and her longing for art 
 and thought. Her culture was as exquisite as it 
 was extended, and her conversation was of the choic- 
 est quality. She never judged either persons or 
 events by petty standards. A woman of marvellous 
 gifts, of the most generous and noble nature, intense 
 in energy, she lived and died the life of a heroine. 
 
 It was typical of that curious fate that ran through 
 
In Retrospect 569 
 
 all Kate Field's life that there should be held two 
 funeral ceremonies, each legitimate, from force of 
 circumstances. After the beautiful rites in Honolulu 
 the casket was temporarily placed in the vault of a 
 friend. As there was no cable from Hawaii, the tid- 
 ings of her death did not reach the United States 
 until May 31, having gone by mail steamer to 
 Japan and from there cabled to this country. The 
 wave of sorrow that ran over the entire land, finding 
 copious expression in probably every newspaper in 
 the United States and in nearly or quite all of the 
 periodicals, could only suggest the lines, — 
 
 " Unguessed of her in life, the love 
 That rained its tears her grave above." 
 
 At first it was thought that her body should rest in 
 the land with which her fame is forever linked, and 
 where she had inspired the fervent friendship and 
 profound admiration of the people, both natives and 
 colonizers. Mr. Kohlsaat, in his journal, the " Times- 
 Herald," said editorially : — 
 
 " A monument to Kate Field should rise in Hawaii, and 
 it should proclaim to all future ages the name of one who, 
 more than all others, contributed to the union of the islands 
 with the United States. There Kate Field's fame would be 
 most secure. There every traveller would find imperish- 
 able witness to her genius and her patriotism. Rarely, 
 indeed, would letter go forth or visitor return to any part 
 of the world without bearing testimony to the life and the 
 death of a noble spirit." 
 
 Later, however, her will was found, directing that 
 her body should be cremated, and that in the urn of 
 ashes her mother's wedding ring, which she had worn, 
 
5 70 Kate Field 
 
 should be placed and the urn deposited in her lot in 
 Mount Auburn Cemetery, near Boston, by the graves 
 of her parents and brother. The delay in finding 
 her will and the long process of communication with 
 Hawaii deferred the final decision into the late autumn ; 
 and it was not until the following December after her 
 death that the casket containing her body was re- 
 moved from the vault in the Honolulu cemetery and 
 brought to San Francisco, where on Dec. 27, 1896, a 
 most impressive and beautiful service was held over 
 the little casket in Trinity (Episcopal) Church, after 
 which the body was cremated. Of these last rites a 
 San Francisco journal said : — 
 
 " The services in Trinity Church and at the crematorium 
 were solemnly impressive. They had all the pomp and cir- 
 cumstance of a splendid ritual and the silent tribute of a 
 listening throng. There was no spoken eulogy to tell of the 
 worth of a brilliant woman, and none was needed. There 
 was the silent offering of countless fragrant flowers, the re- 
 spectful, mournful presence of thousands of men and women, 
 and the simple dignity of a general memorial to the honored 
 dead. . Kate Field's ashes will rest, as she wished them, in 
 her own land and under the flag of her own country." 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Henry Highton of San Francisco took 
 the entire direction of the impressive ceremonials. 
 Their generous friendship made the occasion beauti- 
 ful with every grace that could minister to honor and 
 to love. 
 
 The chancel was embowered in flowers, with noble 
 palms in the background and the silken banners of 
 various societies, while above all gleamed the ivy- 
 bound outlines of a great cross of white lilies. On 
 the casket rested clusters of white bride roses, sent 
 
In Retrospect 571 
 
 by the President of the United States, — Hon. Gro- 
 ver Cleveland, — with flowers from the Governor 
 of California, the Mayor of San Francisco, from the 
 " Times-Herald '' of Chicago, lawyers, statesmen, sol- 
 diers, the press of San Francisco and other cities, and 
 a multitude of personal friends. Violets, lilies of the 
 valley, roses, and orchids were about in profusion, and 
 among several inscriptions was one that ran: " Kate 
 Field represented the best sentiment of the press and 
 the country." A touching offering was a bunch of 
 edelweiss from " a workman of the docks." It was 
 fitting that these mingled tributes from the loftiest to 
 the lowliest should be offered to Kate Field. " High 
 and low, rich and poor, private citizens and public 
 officers, of city. State, and nation, had gathered to 
 honor the memory of a woman whose abilities had 
 won her a world-wide distinction and whose character 
 had earned her a place in the hearts of loving 
 friends," said a local paper. The white-robed rector, 
 repeating the solemn words, " I am the Resurrection 
 and the Life," preceded the flower-laden casket, and 
 when that exquisite aria, " Angels Ever Bright and 
 Fair," was heard, when the haunting musical cadence 
 rose in the lines, — 
 
 " Angels ever bright and fair, 
 Take me, take me, to your care,'' — 
 
 there was not a dry eye in all the vast assemblage. 
 At the crematory, with music from an unseen organ 
 filling the air; with the cross of lihes held above 
 while the rector pronounced the ritual of the church, 
 — a pall of violets was placed on the casket, and it 
 descended noiselessly and swiftly to the final disposi- 
 tion below. The ashes were reverently placed in an 
 urn and conveyed by General Taylor of Boston to 
 
572 Kate Field 
 
 her friend and one of the two executors of her will, 
 Mr. Kohlsaat, in Chicago. On New Year's morning 
 of 1897 to the friend who had always held her dear- 
 est, between whom and Miss Field a special New 
 Year's letter, aside from the constant correspondence, 
 had passed for fifteen years, — to this friend the urn 
 containing the ashes was given on this New Year's 
 morning, and, resting in a box filled with Annuncia- 
 tion lilies, it was conveyed to Boston. The committal 
 of the urn to Mount Auburn was private. On Sunday, 
 January 10, in the presence only of her cousin, Mr. 
 George Riddle, and his friend. Rev. Francis G. Pea- 
 body, D.D., preacher to Harvard University, the urn, 
 embowered in roses and lilies, was placed in the Field 
 family lot in beautiful Mount Auburn. Over the spot 
 were masses of roses and violets and lilies, and from 
 Mrs. George Andrews Moriarty of Boston a pair of 
 Crossed Palms, in memory of the French decoration 
 bestowed upon Miss Field. Thus tlosed a series of 
 international ceremonies which, while they stand alone 
 in history, were simply the inevitable result of a pe- 
 culiar combination of circumstances. Marking the 
 committal of the urn of ashes in Mount Auburn is a 
 sculptured cross of white Italian marble placed there 
 in loving memory by the friend to whom of all on 
 earth she was dearest. On the short arm of the cross 
 there is simply the name, in raised letters, Kate Field. 
 On the pediment are the lines from the Shakespeare 
 whom she loved, — 
 
 " Spirits are not finely touched 
 But to fine issues." 
 
 While on the reverse of the pediment are words 
 that were dear to her and which she often quoted in 
 
In Retrospect 573 
 
 closing a letter, — Pax Vobiscum. No other inscrip- 
 tion is added; none is needed. 
 
 Upon a nature that was in any degree responsive 
 to her own, Kate Field left always the sense of being 
 a friend to be held sacredly apart from all the rest of 
 the world ; as one for whose friendship one might 
 pray to grow less unworthy ; to leave behind every- 
 thing that was trivial and to aspire to somewhat of 
 the breadth and the exaltation of that plane on which 
 alone free and perfect communion with her could be 
 held. This greatness of nature, this exquisite charm 
 of temperament, will never fade from the memory of 
 those who truly knew Kate Field. 
 
 Anthony Trollope, in his Autobiography, alludes 
 in these words to Miss Field : — 
 
 " There is a woman of whom not to speak in a work pur- 
 porting to be a memoir of my own life would be to omit an 
 allusion to one of the chief pleasures which has graced my 
 later years. In the last fifteen years she has been, out of 
 my family, my most chosen friend. She is a ray of light to 
 me from which I can always strike a spark by thinking of 
 her. I do not know that I should please her or do any 
 good by naming her. But not to allude to her in these 
 pages would amount almost to a falsehood. I could not 
 write truly of myself without saying that such a friend had 
 been vouchsafed to me." 
 
 Of all the expressions ever made regarding Kate 
 Field, in life or in death, this sentence of Mr. Trollope, 
 " She is a ray of light to me from which I can always 
 strike a spark by thinking of her," most perfectly 
 suggests her brilliant, vivid, yet delicate personality. 
 
 " The good stars met in her horoscope ; 
 Made her of spirit and fire and dew." 
 
574 Kate Field 
 
 Her truth was crystal clear, and hypocrisy and in- 
 sincerity shrank abashed before her presence. Not 
 unfrequently she proclaimed some unpalatable fact 
 with less tact than frankness, from which a more 
 politic person would have refrained. Her friendships 
 were somewhat of the heroic fibre, and those who 
 require the ministry of flattery did not receive from her 
 any incense to their self-love. Friendship represented 
 to her a noble sincerity and unfaltering faith which held 
 nothing in common with vain phrasings. She had 
 the unconscious exactingness of a lofty nature ; where 
 she gave faith she gave largely, and she expected the 
 same generous and genuine comprehension in return. 
 When this failed, she scorned to explain herself, and 
 thus she was liable to misconstruction. Her loyalty 
 to truth and to friendship was flawless ; her tender- 
 ness, never demonstrative, was as profound and un- 
 changing as it was reserved and delicate in outward 
 expression. 
 
 Her life was a ceaseless conflict with unrelenting 
 circumstances, and while the pathos of her death, 
 alone in a foreign land, is something that " lies too 
 deep for tears," yet not for her are lament and 
 sorrow. 
 
 " And tears are never for those who die with their face to the 
 duty done ; 
 But we mourn for the fledglings left on the waste, and the 
 fields where the wild waves run." 
 
 She had learned, with Emerson, that 
 
 " The hero is not fed on sweets ; " 
 
 and the unfaltering courage of her struggle during the 
 last five years of her life ; the ceaseless and splendid 
 energy which she opposed to a series of disasters, 
 
In Retrospect 575 
 
 translates personal regard to that enthusiasm which 
 greatness of character must compel from all. Kate 
 Field was one, indeed, 
 
 " Who walked too straight for fortune's end, 
 Who loved too true to keep a friend ; " 
 
 and she had the defects of her gifts, which thus some- 
 times led to her being misunderstood. 
 
 The drama of her hfe sprang from her qualities. 
 She found in it pain, trials, loves, and friendships; 
 artistic enjoyments ; a series of worthy achievements ; 
 mystic communion ; and, withal, that unfailing spring 
 of pure joy which is always given to him who keeps 
 faith with his ideals. Kate Field kept faith with hers. 
 To some degree she, too, was one who, " in spirit- 
 worlds, trod alone," and whose work has left those 
 "air-sown words" that 
 
 " In the next age are flaming swords." 
 
 Our real life is with most of us the life we do not 
 live, and this was peculiarly true with Kate Field. 
 She had a life — which was the inner and the real 
 because the permanent one — that the casual observer 
 or the ordinary acquaintance did not discern, but 
 which manifested itself in her visible achievements in 
 a loftiness of aim, a persistence of purpose, and a 
 splendor of energy, that ranks her among the greater 
 spirits whose lives have blessed the age in which they 
 lived. 
 
 She believed in God and immortality. She was 
 deeply interested in psychical science. " I am one of 
 those who believe in the communion of the Unseen," 
 she wrote in a private letter within a few weeks of 
 her death. Some years before she remarked during 
 a conversation regarding the future life, " I look to 
 
5/6 Kate Field 
 
 see science prove Immortality." The expression was 
 fraught with something of that prophetic power with 
 which a certain temperamental force of insight 
 always invested her. That science must and will 
 iprove immortality is the message of to-day, for there 
 is a distinct and recognizable approach of the two 
 worlds, the seen and the unseen, each of which is 
 flashing its signals to the other. In the higher spirit- 
 ualization of our life here will be found the true con- 
 ditions for communion with the life beyond. 
 
 On that life have the eager mind, the generous 
 heart, the noble purposes, that informed the spirit of 
 Kate Field entered ; and the interest she felt in this 
 next stage of existence is its own consolation to those 
 to whom her companionship was so dear and her 
 personal presence one of perpetual charm. 
 
 That she did not completely succeed in all her 
 efforts proves only that these were great in their 
 nature. For three distinct achievements her life 
 stands, — the securing of better legislation for Utah; 
 for distinguished services to art; for the potent 
 contribution to the forming of public opinion which 
 led to the annexation of Hawaii. 
 
 This stage of life is experimental. We are here 
 largely to learn how to live ; to develop the spiritual 
 qualities which are those demanded by the succeed- 
 ing higher conditions. 
 
 " So irnlch for attempt — anon 
 Performance ! Taught to mould the living vase, 
 What matter the cracked pitchers dead and gone ! " 
 
 To Kate Field herself all this earthly pilgrimage 
 seemed prefigured as the prelude to the more real 
 and significant life entered through the portals of 
 death. Her religious life was that of lofty and all- 
 
In Retrospect 577 
 
 embracing spirituality. It was a religion of deeds 
 and of the quality of daily living rather than of ritual 
 or ceremony. There are persons so constituted as to 
 receive the direct aid of the Holy Spirit through rite 
 and sacred ceremonial. There are others who seem 
 to ask nothing of outward or visible form. To the 
 latter belonged Kate Field. 
 
 The enthusiasm of patriotic feeling that invested 
 Kate was a part of this spirituality of nature. The 
 institutions of her country were to her mind sacred. 
 In the republican idea she saw the Divine pur- 
 pose to lead humanity to a freer, more enlightened, 
 more earnest and noble attainment. To this end 
 she devoted her energy through all the various forms 
 of expression that marked her life. 
 
 " Whenever a gifted spirit passes from one world to the 
 other," said Dean Stanley, " it brings both worlds within a 
 nearer view : the world of this mortal life and the world of 
 an ideal vision, of our inexhaustible longings, of our inex- 
 tinguishable hopes, of our everlasting reunions, — the Eter- 
 nal Love in which dwells the spirit ; the beautiful Jerusalem 
 of which God is the Light." 
 
 Into that Light has entered Mary Katherine Keemle 
 Field. The imperishable legacy of her life is its les- 
 son of courage under trial, of sympathy with human- 
 ity, of swift response to all that is beautiful in nature 
 and art, of persistence in noble purposes, of unfalter- 
 ine devotion to Ideals. In the immortal words of 
 
 o 
 
 Dante : — 
 
 " Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare 
 La donna mia ! " 
 
 37 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbey, Edwin A., 487. 
 
 Aberdeen, Lady Ishbel, 448. 
 
 Academy, the (New York), exhibi- 
 tions of, 1 52, 154; Vedder's work in, 
 160; Kate Field's portrait in, 402. 
 
 , Royal, 314, 360. 
 
 "Adam Bede," loi, loS, 397, 398, 399. 
 
 Adams, Hon. Charles Francis, 450. 
 
 Adirondacks, the, 212, 213, 262, 578. 
 
 Administration, blunder of, 445. 
 
 Adriance, Dr. Vanderpoel, 558; at- 
 tends Kate Field, 551, 552. 
 
 " Adrienne," 52. 
 
 Advertiser, the Boston^ on Kate 
 Field, 224. 
 
 , the Commercial (Honolulu), 543, 
 
 556. 
 
 Agassiz, Prof. Louis Jean Rudolph, 
 
 i55j 244j 245- 
 " Agnes Trevor," 149. 
 Alaska, marvellous glaciers of, 89, 437 ; 
 
 Kate Field delivers first lecture in, 
 
 453 ; interests of, discussed in Kate 
 
 Field's "Washington," 485, 514, 
 
 542. 
 Albani, 61 ; her singing praised by 
 
 Kate Field, 411. 
 Alcott, Amos Bronson, 186, 199, 201; 
 
 his assertion to Henry James', 202 ; 
 
 203, 206. 
 , Louisa May, 148; her domicile 
 
 in Boston, 243. 
 Alcotts, the, 245. 
 Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 212, 219, 431, 
 
 462. 
 "Alice" (son?), 211. 
 Allen, Heron, reads Kate Field's hand, 
 
 249. 
 
 AUston, Washington, 382. 
 
 Ambassador, the American, 389. 
 
 " Amber Gods," the, 108. 
 
 "America for Americans," title of 
 lecture by Kate Field, 483. 
 
 , life of letters in, 469. 
 
 American, 536. 
 
 "American Actor Series," the, 404. 
 
 Americans, the, 563, 564. 
 
 Ames, Mary, nee Clemmer (later Mrs. 
 Edmund Hudson), 183. 
 
 Amherst College, 307 ; Eclipse Expe- 
 dition of, 550, 552. 
 
 Anagnos, Julia, nee Howe (Mrs. Mi- 
 chael), 245. 
 
 Ancon, the, 453. 
 
 Anderson, Mary (later Mme. Navarro), 
 409. 
 
 Andrew, Hon. John A., 244. 
 
 Angell, Dr. Henry A., 182. 
 
 , Dr. and Mrs. Henry A., 202. 
 
 , Mrs. Henry A., 209. 
 
 " Angels Ever Bright and Fair," sung 
 at last rites for Kate Field, 571. 
 
 Anthony, A. V. S., 252. 
 
 , Mrs. A. V. S., 207. 
 
 , Mr. and Mrs. A. V. S., 208, 209, 
 
 212, 392. 
 
 , Susan B., 222, 234, 505. 
 
 Antonio, 368. 
 
 "Appleton's Magazine" publishes 
 poem by Kate Field, 305. 
 
 Appleton, Thomas Gold, 155. 
 
 "Arabian Nights," 539. 
 
 Archer, Mr. (actor), 368. 
 
 Argirapolo, Principessa, 114. 
 
 Aristotle, 97. 
 
 Arnim, Bettina von, 79, 
 
58o 
 
 Index 
 
 Arnold, Matthew, 244, 374, 
 
 Art of acting, Kate Field's views on, 
 117. 
 
 Ashburton, Lady Louisa, gives ring 
 to Harriet Hosmer, 126. 
 
 Ashley, Fanny, 173. 
 
 Asiatics, the, 543, 547. 
 
 Aspiration, life of, 83. 
 
 Association, the National Art, 487. 
 
 " As You Like It," 369. 
 
 "Athenaeum," the (London), 134, 
 299, 321 ; praises Kate Field's act- 
 ing, 342. 
 
 Athens, the Modem, 438. 
 
 Atlantic, coast of, 467. 
 
 "Atlantic Monthly," the, 125 ; pub- 
 lishes Kate Field's sketch of Mrs. 
 Browning in number for September, 
 1S61, 140; Kate Field's series of 
 contributions to, 144, 156, 198, 238, 
 321, 462. 
 
 Aubrey House, 257. 
 
 "Audrey," 183. 
 
 "Auld Robin Gray," 171, 
 
 "Aurora Leigh," 122, 189, 209, 394. 
 
 Ausable Chasm, 213. 
 
 Austin, Alfred, calls on Kate Field, 
 
 Australia, 533. 
 
 Austrians, the, loi ; colors of, 102. 
 Autobiography, Anthony TroUope's, 
 573- 
 
 Bacon, Lord Francis, 456. 
 
 Bacon's Essays, 122. 
 
 Baldwin, Albert H., 124. 
 
 Ball, Thomas, 47, 112. 
 
 Baltimore, the U. S. S,, 539. 
 
 Bancroft, Hon. George, 218, 447, 448. 
 
 Band, the Hawaiian, 556. 
 
 Banks. Gen. Nathaniel Prentiss, 183. 
 
 Barker, Dr., 180. 
 
 (artist), 3S0, 381. 
 
 Barnum, Phineas T., 155, 368. 
 
 Barrett, Elizabeth (later Mrs. Brown- 
 ing), estimates Poe's poetry, 22. 
 
 , Lawrence, his biography of Ed- 
 win Forrest, 6; 408; thanks Kate 
 Field for "Life of Fechter" 409; 
 notes Mary Anderson's success, 409. 
 
 Bartol, Rev. Dr. Cyrus A., 252, 259- 
 261; 431. 
 
 Barton, Clara, 160. 
 
 Bashkirtseff, Marie, 472. 
 
 Batellini, Princess, 114. 
 
 Beaconsfield, Lord, Benjamin Disraeli, 
 writes to Kate Field, 359. 
 
 Beal, Louisa, nee Adams (Mrs. James 
 H.), 170, 181. 
 
 Beard, William H., 150. 
 
 Beaux, Cecilia, 487. 
 
 Beecher, Henry Ward, 148, 212, 214, 
 221; presides at Kate Field's lec- 
 ture, 228 ; 297. 
 
 — , Captain, 453. 
 
 Beethoven, Ludwig von, 63, 209, 309, 
 
 5'5- 
 Belief in endless progression, 518. 
 Bell, Alexander Graham, 347, 351, 
 
 353> 359- 
 Bell Telephone, 393, 401. 
 Bellini, Vincenzo, 61. 
 Bellosguardo, heights of, 106, 133. 
 
 , villa of, 93, 100. 
 
 Bendelari, Signor Augustus, 63, 68, 
 
 , Josephine, nee Corelli, 206. 
 
 Benedict, Sir Julius, 353, 365. 
 Bennington, the U. S. S., 534, 539. 
 Benton, Col. Thomas H., 29, 30. 
 
 , Josiah Henry, Jr., 295. 
 
 Bernhardt, Mme. Sarah, 329, 337, 
 
 412. 
 Berthold of Zahringen, tomb of, 277. 
 Bertini, Henri, 34. 
 Besant, Annie, 119. 
 Beverly Bells, 433. 
 Biddulph, Sir Thomas, 352, 359. 
 
 , Lady, 352. 
 
 Bierstadt, Albert, 150, 487. 
 Bigelow, Hon. John, 227. 
 Bimie, Rev. Dr. D. P., 556, 557. 
 Black, William, 279, 280, 314, 343, 
 
 353- 
 Blagden, Isabella, lives on Bello- 
 sguardo, 93, 95 ; compares Kate 
 Field and her mother, 100; shares 
 villa with Miss Cobbe, 100; evening 
 with, loi; Miss Cobbe leaves, 102, 
 104, 105; invites Brownings, Lan- 
 
Index 
 
 581 
 
 dor, and Kate Field to tea, 106; 
 
 dines with Kate Field, 107; Mrs. 
 
 Browning writes to, 110; 115, 122, 
 
 123, 126; sees Mrs. Browning for 
 
 last time, 135; 137, 139, 156. 
 Blaine, Mrs. James G., 392. 
 Blake, Dr. Clarence J., 347. 
 Blanc, Louis, 291. 
 " Bleak House," 20. 
 •' Blinker, The," 318. 
 
 Blount, , 524. 
 
 " Bob Sawyer," 173, i8i, 
 
 Bocca di Leone, 93. 
 
 Boeufvfi, Jules, 510. 
 
 Bcnaparte, Joseph, 443. 
 
 Bonnat, Leon Joseph Florentin, 371. 
 
 Booth, Edwin, 47, 116; Hamlet of, 
 
 163; as Richelieu, 411, 473, 474. 
 
 , John Wilkes, 162. 
 
 , Junius Brutus, 163. 
 
 Booth's theatre, 209; Kate Field's 
 
 debut in, 324, 325; 334, 335. 
 Boott, Frank, 208. 
 
 , Lizzie, 202. 
 
 Boston, city of, 50S, 570, 571, 572. 
 Botta, Anne Charlotte, nee Lynch 
 
 (Mme. Vincenzo), 177, 183, 238, 
 
 366, 404, 565, 566. 
 
 , Vincenzo, 334. 
 
 , Prof, and Mme. Vincenzo, 148, 
 
 319- 
 " Bottom," 189. 
 Boucicaults, the, 346. 
 Boughton, Geo. H., 150, 487. 
 Boutwells, the, 183. 
 Bowditch, Dr. Henry P., 295. 
 Bowles, Samuel, 149, 249. 
 Boyd, Porter, Vice-Consul-General, 
 
 556. 
 Brackett, Anna C, 401, 402. 
 
 , George A., 485. 
 
 Bracketts, the Walter, 205. 
 Bradlaugh, Charles, 297, 298, 299, 308, 
 
 313. 338- 
 Brahma, Emerson's, 336. 
 
 Brahmin life, 414. 
 
 Brazil, 547. 
 
 Bressant, M., 86. 
 
 Brice, Hon. Calvin S. and Mrs., 494. 
 
 Bridal Veil, the, 473. 
 
 " Brindisi," from opera of " Galath^e," 
 115, 388. 
 
 Brohan, Mile. Augustine, 85. 
 
 Brooks, Rt. Rev. Dr. Phillips, in, 
 165 ; commends Kate Field's Mor- 
 mon lecture, 430; 459, 488, 4S9, 496. 
 
 Brougham, Lord Henry, 129. 
 
 Brown, John, 213, 214, 223, 224, 225, 
 226, 232, 243, 283, 52S. 
 
 , Junius Henri, 20S. 
 
 , Walter, 211. 
 
 Browning, Elizabeth, nee Barrett, 
 writes to Ruskin, 93 ; note to Kate 
 Field, 95; writes "Poems before 
 Congress," 103; 104, 106, 107; her 
 opinion of "Amber Gods," loS; 
 no, 115; death of, 134; death and 
 funeral described by Kate Field, 
 134-138 ; sketch of, by Kate Field, 
 140 ; locket of, given to Kate Field 
 by Browning, 141 ; love of Kate 
 Field for, 143, 144; 199, 209, 354, 
 394 ; calls Trollope " Aristides the 
 Just," 396; 468, 55>. 553; monu- 
 ment of, by Leighton, 157 ; "Study 
 of Life and Poetry of," 147. 
 
 , Robert, 22; Kate Field's care 
 
 for opinion of, 94 ; note to Kate 
 Field, 95 ; compliments Kate Field, 
 loi ; writes to Kate Field, 104, 105, 
 109, 110,126,127, 139, 171; 262,263. 
 266, 267, 274, 306. 307. 3'5. 362; 
 great grief of, 135, 136, 1.37 ; leaves 
 Florence for Paris, 139 ; gives shawl 
 of Mrs. Browning. to Mrs. Field, 
 141; gives locket containing Mrs. 
 Browning's hair to Kate Field, 141 ; 
 has interior of Casa Guidi photo- 
 graphed, 142 ; contrast of Browning 
 and Lytton, 142; 157. 
 
 , Robert Barrett Wiedemann, 31. 
 
 Brownings, the, 85, 92, 93, 103, 123, 
 126, 167, 292. 
 
 Brummel, Beau, 480. 
 
 Brunswick, the Hotel (Boston), 440, 
 477, 508. 
 
 Bryant, William Cullen, 16; festival 
 of, 160, 338. 
 
 Building, the Administration, Manu- 
 factures, Electricity, Machinery, 
 
582 
 
 Index 
 
 Agricultural, in Columbian Exposi- 
 tion, 505, 506. 
 
 Bull, Ole, 34. 
 
 Bullard, Laura, nee Curtis, 207, 208, 
 
 33S, 383- 
 Butler, Hon. Benjamin, 1S2, 183. 
 
 Calhoun, Lucia, nee Gilbert (later 
 
 Mrs. Runkle), 208. 
 California, 485; the Governor of, 571. 
 Calixtus, St., Catacombs of, 89. 
 Calvin, 278. 
 Cambridge, 494. 
 "Camilla," 334; Bernhardt's and 
 
 Modjeska's, compared by Kate 
 
 Field, 412. 
 Campagna, the, 89. 
 Campanini, Signor, 321. 
 Campbell, Governor and Mrs., 482. 
 Campo Santo, the, 141. 
 Canavarro, Seiior, 557. 
 Cannon, George Q., 457, 483. 
 Capital, the, 486, 518. 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 96, 1 76 ; calls Alcott 
 
 " the acorn-eating," 202; 362. 
 Carman, Bliss, 138. 
 Gary, Alice, 148, 208. 
 
 , Phoebe, 148. 
 
 Cary, the sisters, 195, 456. 
 
 Casa, Thomas, 386. 
 
 Casa dell' Ardenza, no, 113. 
 
 Casa Guidi, 107, no, 121, 139, 142, 
 
 143.3"- 
 " Casaubon, Mr.," 285. 
 Casta Diva, 54. 
 
 Castelar, Emilio, 311, 317, 518. 
 " Castellata, Due della," 434. 
 Catholic, the. University, 496, 524. 
 "Caught Napping," comedietta by 
 
 Kate Field, 375. 
 Cavendish, Ada, 306, 341. 
 Cavour, Count Camillo Benso, 136. 
 Cecil, Lord Arthur, 367. 
 " Celia," 369. 
 Cenci, Beatrice, 160. 
 Central Music Hall, 502, 503. 
 "Centuries, A Vision of," article by 
 
 Kate Field, 505. 
 Century, the Club, 339. 
 , the magazine, 235, 469. 
 
 Cervantes, Miguel, 96, 531, 563. 
 Cesnola, di. Count Luigi Palma, 390. 
 "Chamounix, Linda de," 52, 54. 
 Champ de Mars, 372. 
 Chandler, Hon. William and Mrs., 495. 
 Channing, Rev. Dr. William EUery, 
 
 260. 
 Chapel, Mount Auburn, 251, 252, 259. 
 
 , the Royal, 283. 
 
 Chapelle Expiatoire, the, 86. 
 Chapin, Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Edwin 
 
 Hubbell, 306. 
 Chapman (Messrs. Chapman and 
 
 Hall), loi, 103, 178. 
 Chase, Chief-Justice, 183. 
 Chatterton, Thomas, 364. 
 Chaucer, Geoffrey, 230. 
 Chautauqua Assembly, 460. 
 Chicago, 462, 497, 506, 525, 572. 
 Child, Lydia Maria, nee Francis, 234, 
 Chinese, 536, 545. 
 Chippendales, the, 283, 313. 
 Chopin, Frangois Fr^d^ric, 34. 
 Christ, the, 65, 502, 503, 565. 
 Christianity, 459, 480, 502, 503, 565. 
 Christmas, 534, 538. 
 comedietta by Kate Field, 
 
 " Pluto and Cupid," 472. 
 
 gift to Kate Field, 555. 
 
 Church, Frederic Edwin, 150. 
 Cimarosa, Doraenico, 514. 
 Cincinnati, 540. 
 City, the Dream, 498. 
 
 , Salt Lake, 431, 526, 532, 533. 
 
 , the White, 498. 
 
 Civita Vecchia, 88. 
 
 Claflin, Mary (Mrs, William), 181, 182. 
 
 , Hon. William, 219. 
 
 Clapham, William, 207. 
 Clapp, WilUam, 76. 
 Clarendon, Lord, 284, 287. 
 Clark, James Gurdy, 554, 555. 
 Clarke, Rev. Dr. James Freeman, 243, 
 
 244, 492, 496. 
 
 , Sarah Freeman, 152, 492, 493. 
 
 Clemens, Samuel L. (Mark Twain), 
 
 299, 448, 449. 
 
 , Mr. and Mrs. Samuel L., 312. 
 
 Cleveland, Frances, nee Folsom (Mrs. 
 
 Grover), 488. 
 
Index 
 
 583 
 
 Cleveland, Hon. Grover, 440, 4SS, 491 ; 
 sends flowers for last rites over Kate 
 Field, 571. 
 
 Clive, Miss, 311. 
 
 Clough, Arthur Hugh, 246. 
 
 Cobbe, Frances Power, arrives in 
 Florence, 100 ; shares villa with 
 Miss Blagden, loo; sees \'edder's 
 portrait of Kate Field, 102; leaves 
 Florence, 102 ; characterized by Kate 
 Field, 102; estimate of Kate Field, 
 102 ; her medallion of Parker, 103 ; 
 vfrites to Kate Field, 115 ; 262, 274. 
 
 Cod, Cape, 547. 
 
 Cole, Foxcroft, 246. 
 
 Coleman, Charles Caryll, 47, 96, 124, 
 125, 150, 159, 167, 206, 379. 
 
 , Samuel, 150. 
 
 Colfax, Hon. Schuyler, 182. 
 
 Cohseum, the, 89. 
 
 Collection, the Kate Field Memorial, 
 295, 296. 
 
 College, Stowe, 528. 
 
 Collins, Wilkie, 306, 308, 312, 313, 
 34°. 34i> 344. 345. 402, 405, 406, 407. 
 
 CoUyer, Rev. Dr. Robert, 226, 263, 297. 
 
 Cologne, the Cathedral, 275. 
 
 " Colonel Sellers," 337. 
 
 Colorado, 421, 426. 
 
 Springs, 422. 
 
 Columbian Exposition, 471. 
 
 Columbus, 471. 
 
 Colvin, Sidney, 285. 
 
 Com&iie Frangaise, the, 86, 329, 377. 
 
 Comediettas by Kate Field: "The 
 Blind Side," " Extremes Meet," 
 " Two Quarrelsome Cousins," 
 " Dead to the World," " The 
 Wrong Flat," " A Moving Tale," 
 "Caught Napping," "A Morning 
 Call," " The Opera Box," 295. 
 
 " Conclusion, A Foregone," 321. 
 
 Concordians, the, 202. 
 
 Congress, 534. 
 
 , the Art, 487, 513, 542, 543. 
 
 Connaught, Duke of, 352. 
 
 Connery, Thomas B., 368. 
 
 Conservatory of Music, the National, 
 485. 
 
 "Consuelo," 97. 
 
 Consul at Athens, 389. 
 
 Conway, Rev. Moncure Daniel, 2S9, 
 
 339, 34°- 
 Conway, Mr. and Mrs., 263. 
 Cooper, Henry E., 557; S. B., 455. 
 Co-operative Dress Association, 375, 
 
 390. 393. 394. 409. 410; failure of, 
 
 412,415- 
 Copley Square, 477. 
 Coquelin, B^noit Constant, 329. 
 Corbin, Mrs. Caroline C, 200. 
 Corcoran Building, 471. 
 Corday, Charlotte, 276. 
 "Corinne," 208. 
 " Coriolanus," 179. 
 Comhill Magazine, 115. 
 Coronado, 456, 457. 
 Corot, Jean Baptiste Camille, 162. 
 "Corsican, The, Brothers," 32, 50. 
 Corso, the, 89, 91, 232. 
 Coues, Dr. Elliott, 201. 
 Courier, the Boston, 85 ; Kate Field 
 
 writes to, gi. 
 Court of Honor, the, 505 . 
 Couture, Thomas, 152. 
 Cozenza, Baron, 164. 
 Credo, Kate Field's, 470. 
 Crescent, the New Orleans, 180. 
 
 , Warwick, 171. 
 
 "Croce di Savoia," 114. 
 
 Crocker, Colonel, 469. 
 
 Croisette, Madame, death-scene of, 
 
 compared with Genevieve Ward's, 
 
 369- 
 Crookes, Sir William, convictions of, 
 
 regarding intercourse between Seen 
 
 and Unseen, 23, 194. 
 Cross, J. M., 401 i Marian Lewes, 
 
 nee Evans (see George Eliot), 395. 
 Crossed Palms, the, 572. 
 Crothers, Rev. Dr. Samuel M., 423. 
 Crow, Emma {see Cushman), 3, 101. 
 , Hon. Wayman, 3T ; introduces 
 
 Kate Field, 233. 
 Crystal Palace, the, 312. 
 "Cuckoo Song, The," 352. 
 Cummings, W. H., 249, 363 
 Curtis, George William, 214, 363, 491, 
 
 492. 
 Cashing, Frank, 463, 494, 495. 
 
584 
 
 Index 
 
 Cushman, Charlotte, plays leading rSIe 
 in " Gabrielle," 5, 47 ; Kate Field 
 writes verses to, 76, 77; writes to 
 Kate Field, 78; 1S4, 1S6, 322, 457; 
 gives musicale for Kate Field, 92, 
 bust of, loi; 116, 126. 
 
 , Edward, 91, loi. 
 
 , Emma, nee Crow, Mrs. Edward 
 
 (see Crow). 
 
 Daly, Augustin, 232. 
 
 Dall, Caroline, nee Healy, 199, 200, 
 201. 
 
 Dall' Ongaro, 95, 397. 
 
 Dana (artist), Mr., 150. 
 
 , Charles Anderson, describes 
 
 Kate Field on lecture platform, 
 443-446. 
 
 Dante Alighieri, 96, 166, 514, 563, 
 572. 
 
 Dardanelles, the, 375. 
 
 Dartmouth, the University of, 307. 
 
 D'Aubign^, Merle, 278. 
 
 Davenport, Edward, 87. 
 
 "David Copperfield, " 20, 173, 175, 
 181. 
 
 Davis, Jefferson, 151. 
 
 , Rebecca, nee Harding, 271, 272. 
 
 Dawes, Hon. Henry L., 439. 
 
 Dean, Julia, 421. 
 
 DiSjazet, Madame Pauline Virginie, 87. 
 
 Delmonico, 385. 
 
 Denmark, 451. 
 
 Denver, 420, 421, 422, 462, 499, 526. 
 
 Desclee, Aim^e, 313. 
 
 " Diana," 506. 
 
 Dicliens, Charles, 20, 101,102; reads 
 " David Copperfield," 173 ; 174, 
 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181; 
 sends engraving to Kate Field, 182; 
 183, 191, 195, 221, 222 ; Kate 
 Field's lecture on, 228, 229, 420; 
 Kate Field's "Pen Photographs" 
 of, 235 ; 236, 244, 274; Kate Field's 
 lecture on, in London, 285 ; invites 
 Kate Field to Gad's Hill, 311; 
 writes to Kate Field, 382 ; portrait 
 of, 405; 412; Kate Field's lecture 
 on, in Alaska, 453; Kate Field's 
 lecture on, given to prisoners, 4S2 ; 
 
 Kate Field's lecture on, in Honolulu, 
 the last lecture she ever gave, 536. 
 
 Dickinson, Anna Elizabeth, 202, 214, 
 216, 222, 224; describes Kate Field, 
 226. 
 
 Dilke, Sir Charles, Kate Field writes 
 of, 281 ; speaks, 283 ; Kate Field 
 dines with, 284 ; sympathy of, with 
 Bradlaugh, 298 j edits " The Athe- 
 n£eum," 299 ; calls on Kate Field, 
 
 353. 
 , Sir Charles and Lady, invited by 
 
 Lady Franklin, 288. 
 , Emilia (Lady Dilke), nee Strong 
 
 {see Pattison), 500. 
 
 , WiUiam, 315. 
 
 Dillingham, B. F., 547. 
 
 District of Columbia, 543. 
 
 Divide, the, 421, 
 
 Dodge, Mary Abigail (Gail Hamilton), 
 
 208; writes to Kate Field, 391, 392. 
 , Mary, nee Mapes, 208 ; writes to 
 
 Kate Field, 484. 
 Dolby, Mr., 174, 175, 181. 
 Dole, Hon. Sanford B., President of 
 
 Hawaii, Kate Field meets, 534 ; 
 
 interviewed by Kate Field, 536; 
 
 characterized by Kate Field, 538; 
 
 interview with, praised, 544, 546; 
 
 attends funeral of Kate Field, 557; 
 
 President and Mrs. Dole entertain 
 
 Kate Field at Christmas, 538; send 
 
 flowers to funeral of Kate Field, 556, 
 "Dombey and Son," 20, 281. 
 Donizetti, Gaetano, 61. 
 Doremus, Prof, and Mrs., 319. 
 "Dorothea," 285. 
 Dorschemer, Mrs., 311. 
 " Dragons, A Brother of," 462, 
 Drake, Chief-Justice, 433. 
 Drummond, Dr. Henry, 565. 
 Drury Lane, theatre of, 311, 529. 
 Dryden, John, 230. 
 Du Chaillu, Paul, 177. 
 Dudevant, Madame Amantine Lucille 
 
 Aurora, nee Dupin (George Sand), 
 
 97. 
 Dumas, Alexander, ^/j, 412. 
 Du Maurier, George Louis Palmella 
 
 Busson, 353. 
 
Index 
 
 585 
 
 Duomo, the, distant view of in Ved- 
 
 der's portrait of Kate Field, 102. 
 Dusenbury, Mrs., 3S6. 
 
 Easter, Kate Field's reference to, 
 
 4S3, 496. 
 '' Echoes from the Orient," the, 472. 
 Edinburgh, Kate Field visits, 343, 
 
 345. 347. 
 
 Edison, Thomas Alva, 27, 350. 
 
 Edmunds, Hon. George Franklin, 473. 
 
 "Education des Mferes de Famille," 
 206. 
 
 Electricity Building, 498. 
 
 Eliot, George (Marian Cross, nie 
 Evans, see Lewes), 8; Kate Field 
 reads novel of, 108 ; Kate Field's 
 impression of, 101 ; writes to Kate 
 Field, 270, 271 ; invites Kate Field, 
 284:285,292; Kate Field's descrip- 
 tion of first meeting with, 395, 
 396 ; TroUope shows Madonna to, 
 397; talks to Kate Field, 397; 
 Kate Field's description of, 397; 
 speaks of her work, 398 ; novels of, 
 39S ; visit to Florence of, 399 ; 
 described at the Priory, 400; her 
 reception day, 400; visits Bell 
 Telephone office, 400 ; Kate Field's 
 estimate of, 401. 
 
 Eliot, Mary, 31. 
 
 , Rev. Dr. William, preaches on 
 
 Immortality, 30 ; 33, 233. 
 
 "Elizabeth," rSle of Ristori, 371. 
 
 , Mrs. Field's maid, 38. 
 
 Elliott, C. W., and Mrs. C. W., 177. 
 
 , Mrs. Johp, no. See Howe. 
 
 Emerson, Lincoln, 77. 
 
 , Ralph Waldo, 38, 68; inspira- 
 tion of, to Kate Field, 97 ; poems 
 of, copied by Kate Field, 97 ; de- 
 scribes Landor, 107 ; 143, 148, 165, 
 1 86, 188, 198; calls Alcott a spiral 
 flame, 202; 214, 216; writes to 
 Kate Field, 243 ; 244, 245 ; Caste- 
 lar's fondness for, 318; 476, 493, 
 561, 564, 574. 
 
 "Emile," 205, 206, 208. 
 
 Emmons, Mr. and Mrs., 213. 
 
 "Ennuyl, Diary of," 71- 
 
 " Ernani," 311. 
 
 Escurial, the, 319. 
 
 Eternal City, the, 88. 
 
 Eternal Love, the, 577. 
 
 Ethnological Building, the, 498. 
 
 Evarts, Hon. William M., 183. 
 
 Ewing, 482. 
 
 Executive Mansion, the, 491. 
 
 Exhibition, National Loan, the, or- 
 ganized by Kate Field, 4S8. 
 
 Exposition, the Columbian, 64 ; Kate 
 Field's enthusiasm for, 497 ; an 
 evening of, 499 ; Kate Field reads 
 before, 499, 500 ; Congress of, 505 ; 
 classic description of, by Kate Field, 
 505, 506; awards medal to Kate 
 Field's journal, 515 ; 527, 528. 
 
 , the Paris, of 1878, Kate Field's 
 
 letter on, 372-374. 
 
 " Extremes Meet," comedietta by 
 Kate Field, 341^ 360. 
 
 " Eyes and Ears in London," mono- 
 logue musical by Kate Field, 454. 
 
 "Eyes Bright," comedietta adapted 
 from French by Kate Field, 367. 
 
 Fairy Ring, a, 315. 
 
 "Falstaff," 180. 
 
 Parquets, the, 213. 
 
 Farquhar, George, 347. 
 
 Farrington, Wallace R., 556. 
 
 Fate, problem of, iiS. 
 
 " Father of Annexation," sobriquet 
 of Dr. McGrew, 541. 
 
 Faucit, Helen, later Lady Martin, 364. 
 
 Faure, Jean Baptiste, 270. 
 
 Fawcett, Edgar, 457. 
 
 Fay, Theodore, 11. 
 
 Fechter, Charles Albert, Kate Field's 
 criticism on Hamlet of, 144 ; 167, 
 407, 408 ; Kate Field's biographical 
 sketch of, 238 ; 248, 403 ; Kate 
 Field's criticism on Claude Melnotte 
 of, 404 ; life of, by Kate Field, 404 ; 
 Wilkie Collins writes of, 405, 406, 
 407. 
 
 , Marie, 407. 
 
 , Paul, 407. 
 
 Ffoulke, Mr. and Mrs. Charles M., 496 
 
 Fiarotti, Pfere, 147. 
 
586 
 
 Index 
 
 " Fie," girlish nom de plume of 
 Kate Field, loo. 
 
 Field, Cyrus, 288. 
 
 Field, Eliza Riddle, 4 ; meets Joseph 
 M. Field, 5, 8 ; birth of, 6 ; recog- 
 nized for her impersonation of Julia 
 in " The Hunchback," 6 ; charac- 
 teristics, 7 ; personal beauty, 7 ; let- 
 ters from Joseph M. Field to, 8, 
 9; marriage of, 10; plays leading 
 support to Sheridan Knowles, 10; 
 dramatic powers of, 10; birth of 
 daughter, lo-; baptism of the infant, 
 II ; ideal marriage, 11 ; characteris- 
 tics of, II ; writes to her husband, 
 II, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 27, 35 ; visits 
 her mother in Boston, 13 ; birth of 
 her son, 14 ; beautiful spirit of, 15 ; 
 receives letter from her daughter, 
 19; in St. Louis with her daughter, 
 23 ; returns from New Orleans, 33 ; 
 writes to her daughter, 41, 46; 
 contrasted with Mrs. Sanford, 46 ; 
 counsels her daughter, 48 ; her hus- 
 band's death, 55 ; renewed efforts 
 of, 56; letters of, 57, 58, 59; an- 
 gelic words of, 58; convictions of, 
 regarding future life, 58 ; first meet- 
 ing with her daughter after her 
 husband's death, 67 ; plays in the 
 South, 85 ; joins her daughter in 
 Florence, 98, 99 ; loveliness of, rec- 
 ognized, 100; leaves Florence for 
 Leghorn, no; in Casini dell' Ar- 
 denza, 113; returns to Florence, 
 121; takes apartment, 122; Brown- 
 ing's reference to, 139; returns to 
 America, 147; among the moun- 
 tains, 167 ; her daughter writes to, 
 of Newport, 167 ; counsels of, to 
 her daughter, 168 ; locates in Bos- 
 ton, 185 ; hears Alcott's Conversa- 
 tion on Theism and Christianity, 
 202 ; hears Weiss, 203 ; Mrs. Whip- 
 ple's estimate of, 245 ; domestic life 
 of, 246 ; failing health of, 248 ; sails 
 for Europe, 248 ; death of, 250 ; 
 body of, sent to America, 251, 267 ; 
 her daughter writes of, 268 ; wed- 
 ding ring of, 253, 555. 
 
 Field, Eugene, 434, 435. 
 
 Field, Mrs. Henry, 180, 181. 
 
 Field, Joseph M., 4; brilliantly gifted, 
 5 ; birth of, 5 ; versatile powers of, 
 5 ; writer of stories and plays, 5 ; 
 wins prize for best American com- 
 edy, 5 ; other plays and transla- 
 tions, 5 ; excelled in light comedy, 
 5; meets Eliza Riddle, 5, 8; writes 
 to Eliza Riddle, 8, 9; devotion to 
 Eliza Riddle, 10; marriage of, 10; 
 characteristics of, 11; sails for Eu- 
 rope, II ; takes letters to leading 
 people, 1 1 ; opening of opportunities, 
 1 1 ; writes to his wife, 13,28; return 
 from Europe, 13 ; theatre salary of, 
 13 ; letter from his daughter, 14; let- 
 ters from his wife, 15, 17, 18, 35 ; 
 great sorrow of, 15 ; poem of, 15 ; 
 vein of humor, 16; association with 
 Charles Keemle, i5 ; power of swift 
 decision, 17 ; sells manuscript to 
 a Philadelphia house, 1 7 ; serious 
 thought regarding his daughter, 19 ; 
 receives characteristic letter from 
 Edgar Allan Poe, 21, 22 ; plays in 
 Mobile, 23 ; ardent affection of, for 
 his wife, 27; writes to his daughter, 
 28 ; actor-manager in theatre of, 32 ; 
 hospitality of, 33 ; opens his theatre, 
 "^y^ presented with silver wine-set, 
 34 ; imaginative genius of, 36 ; keeps 
 faith in ideals, 37 ; plays in Mobile, 
 39 ; burning of theatre of, 40 ; forti- 
 tude of, 40 ; perception of his daugh- 
 ter, 40 ; counsels her, 40 ; writes last 
 letter to his daughter, 42 ; letter from 
 his daughter, 49 ; death of, 54 ; trib- 
 utes to, 55 ; reference of his daughter 
 to, 60, 61, 62, 65, 67, 70, 71, 74, 75, 
 78; interest in Spiritualism of, 78, 
 209. 
 
 Field, Joseph Matthew, birth of, 14; 
 resemblance to his sister, 14 ; anni- 
 versary of death of, 27. 
 
 Field, Mary Katherine Keemle (Kate 
 Field), varied and prismatic life of, 
 3 ; nature and characteristics of, 3 ; 
 baptismal name of, 4 ; ancestors of, 
 4 ; prologue of the drama of her 
 
Index 
 
 587 
 
 life, 8 ; hereditary influences of, 8 ; 
 infantile cliaracteristics of, 12; her 
 mother's narrations of, 12, 13 ; 
 her father's thought of, 13 ; sends 
 message to her father, 14; sweet 
 atmosphere of home of, 14 ; early 
 impressions of life, 14 ; message 
 to her father, 1 5 ; takes dancing 
 lessons, 18 ; attends children's 
 party, 18 ; impatience of control, 
 iS; impetuosity of, 19; artistic tem- 
 perament of, 19 ; aspirations toward 
 the good, 21 ; treasures a letter of 
 Poe's, 23 ; childish compositions 
 of, 26 ; intense ambition of, 26 ; 
 strong individuality of, 28; incar- 
 nation of artistic life, 28 ; self- 
 criticism of, 29 ; interest in politics 
 of, 29; sitting for her portrait, 31 ; 
 reads " Uncle Tom's Cabin," 32 ; 
 stimulating atmosphere around, 33 ; 
 reads Racine, 34 ; practises Cho- 
 pin's sonatas, 34 ; records childish 
 opinion of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," 
 34 ; describes Lola Montez, 34, 35 ; 
 diligent work of, yj ; personal de- 
 scription of, 37 ; characteristic ideals 
 of physical care, 37 ; queen rose of 
 the rosebud garden, 38 ; unique qual- 
 ity of, 40 ; truth and lofty nature 
 of , 41 ; threshold of changes for, 42 ; 
 enters Lasell Seminary, 45 ; sub- 
 mits to conditions, 45 ; influences 
 about, 46, 47 ; reads " Hiawatha," 
 49 ; opinion of, 49, 50 ; sings in 
 chorus, 50 ; studies Italian, 50 ; 
 spiritual aspirations, 50 ; premoni- 
 tions of sorrow, 51 ; considers gen- 
 erous oiler, 51, 52; attends opera, 
 52 ; hears Thackeray lecture, 53 ; 
 first sees her name in print, 54 ; 
 appearance in tableaux of, 54 ; hears 
 of her father's death, 54 ; practical 
 power of, 60 ; speculative views of, 
 60 ; enthusiasm of, for music, 61 ; 
 writes of her father, 62 ; difference 
 from other girls, consciousness of, 
 62 ; views of, on voice, 63 ; absorb- 
 ing passion of, 63 ; reflections of, re- 
 garding her father, 65 j parting of 
 
 ways for, 66 ; independence of, 66 ; 
 first meeting of her mother since 
 her father's death, 67 ; anxiety and 
 aspiration of, 67 ; tendencies of, 68 ; 
 Starr King, her impressions of, 75 ; 
 longs for Italy, 76; verses by, to 
 Charlotte Cushman, 76 ; way to 
 open for, 79 ; spiritual nature of, 83 ; 
 stress and storm period, 84 ; dreams 
 of Italy, 84, 85 ; sails, 85 ; enchant- 
 ment of Paris for, 86 ; sees D6jazet, 
 87; attends Vaudeville and sees " The 
 Romance of a Poor Young Man," 
 87 ; surprises of French drama, 87; 
 visits Napoleon's tomb, 87 ; attends 
 ball at American Legation, 88 ; 
 spends mornings in Louvre, 88 j 
 embarks for Rome, 88; first sight 
 of Eternal City, 88 ; sees Vati- 
 can Palace and St. Peter's, 88 ; 
 ecstasy of, in Rome, 8g ; on Corso, 
 89; welcomed by Charlotte Cush- 
 man, 90; writes of Miss Cushman's 
 singing, go ; meets Harriet Hosmer, 
 90; distinctive individuality of, 91 ; 
 Mrs.Whipple's words about, gi ; first 
 sees Salvini, 91 ; describes Salvini, 
 91 ; studies with Sebastiani, 91 ; goes 
 to Hadrian Villa with Miss Cush- 
 man, Harriet Hosmer, and others, 
 91 ; singing of, charms Miss Cush- 
 man, 92 ; urged by Miss Cushman 
 to study with Garcia, 92 ; ex-Pres- 
 ident Pierce calls on, 93; influence 
 of Mrs. Browning on, 93 ; delight 
 in Florence of, 94 ; attachment 
 of, to Robert Browning, 94: his 
 impressions of, 94 ; love and ro- 
 mance of, 94, 95, 413-416 ; grate- 
 ful affection of, for the Brownings, 
 95 ; ardor of, in musical study, 95 ; 
 Mr. Jarves's estimate of, 96; Lan- 
 dor's offer to teach Latin to, 96 \ 
 reads " Consuelo," 97; enters into 
 cause of Italian liberty, 98 ; wel- 
 comes her mother, 99; meets Amer- 
 icans in Florence, 99; her mother 
 and herself compared by Miss Blag- 
 den, 100 ; meets Vedder, 100 ; meets 
 George Eliot, loi ; estimate of, by 
 
588 
 
 Index 
 
 Mis3 Cobbe, 102; Vedder's portrait 
 of, 102 ; sees photograph of Story's 
 bust of Parker, 103; receives gifts 
 from the Brownings, 103 ; is talten 
 in to tea by Landor, 103 ; compli- 
 mented by Landor, 104 ; is an artist 
 born, 105; enjoys social evening, 
 106 ; conversation with Mrs. Brown- 
 ing, 107 ; passed evening in Casa 
 Guidi, 107 ; criticism of " Amber 
 Gods," 108 i reads " Mill on the 
 Floss," 108; daily Latin lessons 
 of, 109; verses by Landor to, 109; 
 letter from Browning, no, 11 1; 
 visits Leghorn, 112; gift of Lan- 
 dor to, 112; qualities of, 113; in 
 Casini dell* Ardenza, 113 ; concerts, 
 114; sympathy with Italy, 115; 
 first meeting of, with Ristori, 116; 
 writes of Ristori's art, 116 ; views 
 of, on dramatic criticism, 117; 
 friendship of, for Ristori, 118 ; 
 in Florence, 121 ; interest in Italy, 
 121 ; range of reading of, 122 ; 
 improved health of, 122 ; takes 
 apartment, 122 ; estimates Anthony 
 Trollope, 123 ; attends ball in Flor- 
 ence, 124; gift of Greene to, 124; 
 letters of Browning and Mrs. Brown- 
 ing to, 126-129 ; patriotism of, 130, 
 131 ; sacrifice for principle, 131 ; 
 writes of Landor, 132, 133 ; gifts of 
 Landor to, 133, 381, 382 ; interest 
 in affairs, 133 ; attraction to litera- 
 ture of, 133 ; versatility of, 134 ; 
 grief of, for Mrs. Browning, 134- 
 138; writes sketch of Mrs. Brown- 
 ing which Trollope commends, 140; 
 returns to America, 147 ; interest in 
 politics of, 147; circle of friends, 
 148 ; becomes Boston correspondent 
 of "Springfield Republican," 149; 
 interest in art, 150; journalistic style, 
 150, 151 ; appreciates Hunt, 151, 
 152; appreciation of Weiss, 154; 
 criticism on Vedder, 154, 155 ; Trol- 
 lope writes to, 156 ; Vedder writes 
 to, 159, 160; criticism of Vedder's 
 work by, i6r, 162 ; rank as critic, 
 162, 163 ; compares Hamlets of 
 
 the stage, 163; gift of, in writing 
 comediettas, 164; dramatic criti- 
 cism of, 164 ; on Ristori, 165 ; on 
 sleep-walking scene, 166 j social in- 
 terludes, 167 ; her mother's counsel 
 to, 168; a social favorite, 168; esti- 
 mate of, by Mrs. Whipple, 169 ; por- 
 trayal of, by Miss Adams, 170 ; visits 
 in Boston, 170; sings in concert 
 given to Adelaide Phillipps, 171 ; 
 letter from Robert Browning to, 171, 
 172; from Vedder to, 172, 173 ; diary 
 of, Dickens' readings, 1 74 ; takes 
 Adelaide Phillipps to hear Dick- 
 ens read "Christmas Carol," 175; 
 sends violets to Dickens, 1 75 ; letter 
 from Dickens to, 175 ; Lippincott 
 publishes article of, on " Ristori 
 as Marie Antoinette," 176; "Tri- 
 bune " praises, 176 ; assists at 
 Ristori's ^eie^ 176; gift of Ristori 
 to, 176; assists at Adelaide Phil- 
 lipps' debut in " L'a Favorita," 
 177; writes on " Pen Photographs 
 of Dickens," 177; longs for Eu- 
 rope, 177; success of her "Pen 
 Photographs of Dickens' Read- 
 ings," 178 ; praises of Dickens, 178; 
 hears Fanny Kemble in '' Julius Cae- 
 sar," 179; in "Measure for Meas- 
 ure," 180; sends pansies to Dickens, 
 182; farewell to Dickens, 182 ; leaves 
 for Washington, 182 ; Anthony 
 Trollope calls on, 183 ; visits White 
 House, 183; goes to Boston, 184; 
 to Isles of Shoals, 184; meets Henry 
 James, fils, 1S4 ; meets Howells, 
 185 ; attends Radical Club, 186 ; 
 hears Whipple on Jeanne d'Arc, 
 187 i first thinks of lecturing, 188; 
 attends Radical Club, 189 ; fateful 
 day for, 189, 190; romance of, 191, 
 194; Planchette writes for, 194; 
 writes Planchette's Diary, 195 ; 
 psychic powers of, 195 ; diary of, 
 196-213; meditations, 196; dines 
 with the Fields, T97; meets Howells, 
 Aldrich, and Fields, 198 ; despond- 
 ency of, 199; at Mrs. Waterston's, 
 200 f finds Alcott " incomprehensi- 
 
Index 
 
 589 
 
 ble," 202; speaks in Radical Club 
 discussion, 203; reads Plato and 
 Rousseau, 205 ; meets Wendell 
 Phillips at lunch, 207 j her opinion 
 of him, 207 ; reads " Corinne," 208 ; 
 writes on her initial lecture, 209; 
 sings "The Danube River," 210; 
 call from Henry James, fils, 211; 
 makes debut as lecturer, 211 ; re- 
 ports Peace Jubilee for " Tribune," 
 212; leaves for Adirondacks, 213 ; 
 loyalty to John Brown, 213; moral 
 heroism of, Z14; appears in lecture, 
 "Woman in the Lyceum," 216; 
 congratulations to, from eminent 
 persons, 216-221 ; lectures on " The 
 Adirondacks," 222, 223; tells story 
 of John Brown, 224, 225 ; raises 
 fund, 225 ; dines with Robert CoU- 
 yer, 226 ; described by Anna Dick- 
 inson, 226 ; business integrity of, 
 228 ; lectures on Dickens, 228 ; de- 
 scribed by Mrs. Moulton, 229 ; her 
 estimate of Dickens, 230, 231 ; rush 
 of hfe of, 232, 233 ; unique indi- 
 viduality of, 235 ; life of, in Boston, 
 243, 244, 245 ; poem to, by Stedman, 
 246, 247 ; " Atlantic Monthly " 
 work, 248 ; impressible nature of, 
 249; great sorrow of, 250, 251 ; ar- 
 ranges for her mother's burial, 251, 
 252, 253; arrives in England, 253; 
 common sense of, 257 ; clair- 
 voyant's prophecy for, 258, 259 ; 
 reaches London, 262 ; Browning, 
 Miss Cobbe, and other friends sym- 
 pathize with, 262, 263 ; convictions 
 against mourning apparel, 263; 
 many expressions of sympathy for, 
 264-266; Garcia's opinion of her 
 voice, 267; intense life of, 269; 
 George Eliot writes to, 270, 271 ; 
 invited by Lord and Lady Hough- 
 ton, 223 ; friendship with Brown- 
 ing renewed ; leaves for the Conti- 
 nent, 275 ; in Germany, 277 ; in 
 Geneva, 278; returns to London, 
 27S ; independence in finance, 279 ; 
 interest in the Unseen, 281 ; at- 
 traction to political affairs, 282 ; 
 
 press letters of, 283; alleged mes- 
 sage from the Unseen, 2S4 ; lectures 
 on Dickens, 285 ; leaves England, 
 286 ; post-prandial speech, 287 
 social interests of, 2S8-293 ! '^i^' 
 Stedman's counsel to, 294 ; com^ 
 ediettas by Kate Field, 293 
 Memorial Collection for, 295, 296 
 estimate of Bradlaugh, 297 ; inter 
 views Bradlaugh, 299; poem by 
 301, 304 ; Rubinstein's compliment 
 to, 306 J enthusiasm of for direct ex- 
 pression, 307 ; dramatic sequence of 
 her life,309 ; meets Ristori again, 
 310; "Tribune" letters of, 312; 
 on the Thames with Herbert Spen- 
 cer, 313 ; is seen off for Continent by 
 Browning, 315; visits Spain, 317; 
 estimate of Castelar, 318; returns 
 to New York, 319 ; her convictions 
 on friendship, 329 ; hears " Lohen- 
 grin," 321 ; dramatic study, 323 ; de- 
 cides to appear on the stage, 323 ; 
 debut in Peg Woffington, 324,325; 
 results, 329 ; Stedman's description 
 of Kate Field's debut, 330-335 ; bril- 
 liant success in " Gabrielle," 336; 
 plays successfully in " The Gilded 
 Age," 337, 33S ; return to London, 
 341 ; plays in her own comedy, 
 " Extremes Meet," 341 ; success as 
 Violante, 342 ; visits Edinburgh, 
 343 ; describes initial experience 
 with telephone, 348-350 ; scientific 
 vein in, 350 ; work for telephone, 
 351 ; sings through telephone to 
 the Queen, 352 ; gives matinee 
 t^l^phonique, 352 ; personal inde- 
 pendence of, 356, 357; finances of, 
 358; describes London life, 360- 
 363 ; interest in Shakespeare Me- 
 morial, 363; sings in theatre; 
 365 ; organizes matinee for Shake- 
 speare Memorial benefit, 366-369; 
 letters of congratulation to, 369, 
 370 ; joins Ristori in Svritzerland, 
 371 ; contrast of, with Ristori, 371 ; 
 compares Rachel and Ristori, 371 ; 
 Ristori's friendship for, 371; de- 
 scribed by Paris correspondent. 
 
590 
 
 Index 
 
 371; attends Paris Exposition, 372; 
 letters to "Tribune," 372, 373; 
 Dr. Schliemann's thanks to, 374; 
 return to America, 379 ; achieve- 
 ments and plans, 379; description 
 of apartments of, 379, 380; fa- 
 vorable conditions for, 379; pleas- 
 ant surroundings, 380; Lander's 
 album, 380, 381, 3S2; gift of 
 Dickens to, 382 ; home life of, 
 382; personal appearance of, 3S3; 
 reception of Dr. Holland to, 3S4 ; 
 gives "Musical Monologue," 386; 
 dancing and singing of, 387 ; gives 
 musical recital, 388 ; efforts for Dr. 
 Schliemann, 389 ; how she inter- 
 viewed him, 390 ; the C. D. A., 
 391: in Boston, 392; financial 
 losses, 393, 394 ; describes first 
 meeting with George Eliot, 395, 
 396; her conversation with, 397; 
 description of George Eliot, 397 ; 
 describes George Eliot's reception 
 day, 400; estimate of George Eliot, 
 401 ; praised by Miss Brackett, 
 401; portrait of, painted by Millet 
 and exhibited at Academy, 402; 
 writes Life of Fechter, 404 ; describes 
 Fechter's " Claude Melnotte," 404; 
 letters from Wilkie Collins discuss- 
 ing Fechter, 405, 406, 407; her 
 estimate of Fechter's Hamlet, 407 ; 
 provides seats for women employees, 
 409; social side of C. D. A., 410; 
 sails for London, 410 ; hears Wagner 
 opera, 411; hears Patti, 411 ; sees 
 Irving and Terry in " Romeo and 
 Juliet," 4T1 ; sees Bernhardt in 
 "Camille," 412; self-revelations of, 
 414 ; her ideal of womanhood, 416 ; 
 visits in Newport, 419; her blue 
 room in Edna Villa, 419; patriot- 
 ism of, 419, 420 ; decides to visit 
 the far West, 420 ; described as de- 
 livering lecture on Dickens, 420 ; 
 holidays in Colorado, 421 ; constant 
 letters of, to a friend for fifteen 
 years, 421; visits grave of H. H., 
 422; news of her uncle's death, 
 423; fulness of her life, 423 ; honors 
 
 the journalist, 423 ; reads daily 
 papers, 424 ; vigorous masterly deal- 
 ing of, with Mormon problem, 424, 
 425, 426, 427 ; Mr. Whipple's char- 
 acterization of Kate Field's Mor- 
 mon study, 427, 428 ; the Salt Lake 
 Tribune on, 428, 429 ; lectures in 
 Boston, 429 ; brilliant audience of, 
 429 ; Phillips Brooks' commendation 
 of, 429; Dr. Bartol's enthusiasm for, 
 431 \ Aldrich's humorous thanks to, 
 431 ; methods of investigation, 431 ; 
 filled lecture engagements, 431, 432 ; 
 visits the seashore, 432; described 
 in hammock, 432 ; speaks of Mor- 
 monism, 433; visits Yellowstone 
 Park, 434; Eugene Field's jokes 
 on, 434, 435 ; Stedman'sy<sM (V esprit^ 
 435 ; Kate Field's enthusiasm for 
 pure English, 436 ; impressions of 
 Yosemite, 438 ; Kate Field's humor- 
 ous description of lecture tour, 438 ; 
 President Cleveland writes to Kate 
 Field, 440 ; Mr. Dana's descrip- 
 tion of, 444; oratory of, 445, 446; 
 voluminous press comments on, 
 448; Mrs. Sewall's estimate of, 
 448; interest of, in cremation, 
 450; advocates a national marriage 
 law, 450, 451 ; vigorous expres- 
 sions, 451; honored by Loyal Le- 
 gion, 452; writes of Lowell, 452, 
 530; of Mackay, 452; visits Alaska, 
 453 ; first lecture in Alaska deliv- 
 ered by Kate Field, 453 } rides in 
 Yosemite, 454; lectures in Tacoma, 
 455; literary comments of, 456, 
 457 ; appreciation of Edgar Fawcett, 
 457; significance of "unwomanly," 
 458 ; vitacultural interests, 458 ; 
 views on prohibition, 459 ; Bishop 
 Vincent's words to, 460; Dr. Hale's 
 views given to, 460 ; ceaseless activ- 
 ity of, 461 ; comments on " Robert 
 Elsmere," 461 ; extensive travel of, 
 461, 462; interview with, in N. Y. 
 "Herald," 462; comments on 
 "The Quick and the Dead," 463; 
 meets Mrs. Howe in California, 463 ; 
 talent of, for winning friends, 464 ; 
 
Index 
 
 591 
 
 new enterprise of, 464; **Kate 
 Field's Washington," 464; signifi- 
 cant decade of, 467 ; initial number 
 of her " Kate Field's Washington," 
 467; intense interest of, in "Kate 
 Field's Washington," 46S ; instinc- 
 tive leadership of, 46S ; attraction to 
 Washington, 46S ; Miss Gilder's 
 friendship for, 469 ; christening 
 "Kate Field's Washington," 469; 
 Kate Field's Credo, 470 ; conditions 
 in Washington, 471; interest of, in 
 Columbian Exposition, 471 ; com- 
 edietta by Kate Field, 472 ; inter- 
 est of, in Theosophy, 472 ; scope 
 of " Kate Field's Washington," 
 473; espousal of "causes,'* 474; 
 personal expression of Kate Field 
 in " Kate Field's Washington, " 476 ; 
 convictions regardmg Washington, 
 476; social prestige of, 477; in 
 Hotel Brunswick, 477, 508; strik- 
 ing editorials of, 47S, 479, 480, 4S1 ; 
 lectures to prisoners, 482 ; her re- 
 hgious feeling, 4S3 ; aspirations of, 
 483 ; close study of American con- 
 ditions, 4S3, 4S4, 485 ; efforts for 
 art, 486 ; pleads cause of free art 
 before Congress, 486 ; founds Na- 
 tional Art Association, 4S7; sym- 
 pathy of Stedman, Phillips Brooks, 
 Cardinal Gibbons, G. W. Curtis, and 
 others, 4S7-493 ; efforts for inter- 
 national copyright, 493 ; sympathy 
 of Lowell and Holmes, 494 ; friends. 
 495, 496 ; sadness of, 496 ; efforts for 
 Columbian Exposition, 497, 498 ; her 
 intelligent interest in, 498, 499; a 
 poetic evening, 499 ; appears before 
 Labor Congress, 500; her plan for 
 Labor Bureaus, 500, 501 ; approval 
 of Dr. Depew, 501 ; Kate Field's 
 intense efforts in, 502 ; her estimate 
 of Stead, 502-504; conversion to 
 woman suffrage, 504 ; classic pro- 
 duction of Kate Field, 505, 506; 
 social enjoyment, 506, 507 ; com- 
 mended by Dr. W. T. Harris, 507, 
 508 ; death of her Aunt Corda, 508; 
 reminiscences of her aunt, 509 ; 
 
 French government honors Kate 
 Field, 509-512 ; congratulations, 
 512; Henry MacFarland's letter of, 
 512; Kate Field's characterization 
 of Paderewski, 514 ; exposition 
 awards diploma to '* Kate Field's 
 Washington," 515; gratification of 
 Kate Field, 516; eager desire of, 
 for worthy achievement, 516; sus- 
 pension of *'Kate Field's Wash- 
 ington," 517; sympathy of press 
 and people for, 518; later character- 
 istics of, 51S; significance of her 
 work, 519 ; closing the chapter, 
 519; bids Washington farewell, 520^ 
 destiny leading to Hawaii, 523; ad- 
 vocates annexation, 523; frequent 
 expressions of, regarding, 524; com- 
 ments on Hawaii, 524, 525 ; attracted 
 by Hawaiian problem, 525 ; leaves 
 Washington, 525 ; pauses in Chi- 
 cago, 525; lingerings en route^ 526; 
 premonitions of death, 526 ; interest 
 in affairs, 526; first meeting with 
 Mr. Kohlsaat, 527; his kindness 
 to, 527; aids Kate Field in closing 
 business, 527; his commission to, 
 527 ; John Brown again, 52S ; eager- 
 ness for new work, 528-531; remi- 
 niscences of, 529; prophetic mind 
 of, 532; leaves Chicago, 532; ob- 
 serves conditions in Utah, 532; 
 press letters of, widely quoted, 532 ; 
 sense of humor of, 533; sails for 
 Hawaii, 533: arrives in Honolulu, 
 534 ; enchanted with beauty of, 534 ; 
 laments lack of cable, 534; notes 
 psychical experience, 535; enters 
 on study of Hawaiian conditions, 
 535 ; judicious nature of her work, 
 535 ; personal intercourse of, with 
 residents and natives, 535; enters 
 into heart of interests, 535; obtains 
 first interview with President Dole, 
 536: observes Hawaiian industries, 
 536; gives Dickens lecture, 536; be- 
 loved by all, 537; press letters of, 
 537; explores island, 537; dines 
 on Christmas with the Doles, 538 ; 
 estimate of President Dole, 538; 
 
592 
 
 Index 
 
 writes of people and events, 539; 
 describes /^/^, 539; a favorite with 
 all, 540; describes earthquake, 540; 
 interviews Dr. McGrew, 540 ; love of 
 scenery of Hawaii, 541 ; exasperated 
 by lack of cable and mails, 541 ; writes 
 of conditions, 542, 543; catholicity 
 of spirit of, 543 ; letters of, racy 
 character, 544 ; visits the Joneses, 
 544; name given Kate Field by 
 natives, 544; enters into Hawaiian 
 life, 545; addresses natives, 546; 
 is greeted enthusiastically, 547; de- 
 cides to extend journey, 54S ; refuses 
 entreaties to rest, 54S ; sails for other 
 islands, 548 ; intense interest in 
 Hawaiian life, 548; in Hilo, 549; 
 reaches Kailua, 549; mysterious 
 prescience of, 549; yields to en- 
 treaties to return to Honolulu, 550; 
 meets Prof, and Mrs. Todd, 550; 
 Dr. Adriance attends, 551 ; re- 
 peats line of Mrs. Browning's, 551; 
 enjoys singing of natives and 
 beauty of scenery, 552; last words 
 of, 552; spirit takes flight, 554; 
 her mother's wedding ring with- 
 drawn from her finger, 555; beau- 
 tiful rites over, 555; casket draped 
 in stars and stripes, 555; official 
 honors to Kate Field, 556; casket 
 buried in flowers, 556 ; distinguished 
 tributes to Kate Field, "^'^T \ lines of 
 Theocritus, 558: life of, interpreted, 
 561; indomitable in purpose, 561; 
 Margaret Sullivan's estimate of, 
 562; versatility of, 562, 563; inspi- 
 rational temperament of, 564; her 
 realization of temporary conditions, 
 564, 565; her views of death, 565, 
 566; her ideas of biography, 566; 
 phrenological analysis of, 567, 568; 
 sensitive nature of, 568 ; spiritual 
 tragedy of, 568; exquisite culture 
 of, 568; noble and generous nature 
 of, 568 ; two funeral ceremonies of, 
 569; grief over her death, 569; her 
 will found, 569 ; her directions regard- 
 ing ring, 569; wish to be cremated, 
 1569; disposition of urn, 570; im- 
 
 pressive rites in San Francisco, 570; 
 tributes to, 570, 580; distinguished 
 remembrances of, 571 ; cremation of, 
 571 ; urn brought to Chicago by Gen- 
 eral Taylor, 572; committal of, to 
 Mount Auburn, 572; a sculptured 
 cross, 572; Pax Vobiscum, 573; im- 
 press made by Kate Field, 573; An- 
 thony Trollope's estimate, 573: esti- 
 mate of, as a friend, 574; drama of 
 life of, 575; her loftiness of spirit, 
 575; views of future life, 575, 576; 
 success of, 576; religion of, 577; 
 patriotism of, 577; spirituality of, 
 577. 
 Field, Kate, receives letters from iier 
 father, 24, 25, 39, 40, 42 ; her mother, 
 41, 46, 48, 57. 71 ; Charlotte Cush- 
 man, ']% ; the Brownings, 95, 104, 
 110,126, 127, 128,139; Mrs. Brown- 
 ing, 105, 128, i2g; Dr. Gresanowsky, 
 122 ; Annie Fields, 149 ; T. A. Trol- 
 lope, 156, 157, 158,265,266; Vedder, 
 159, 160; EHzabeth Stuart Phelps, 
 163,164; Dickens, 175, 382 ; Rev. 
 O. B. Frothingham, 217, 219; Henry 
 James, /^?-^, 217, 218; Mrs. Kin- 
 ney, 219; D. A. Wasson, 220; G. 
 S. Hillard, 220, 221 ; Beecher, 221; 
 R. W. Gilder, 235, 236, 237, 292 ; E. 
 Stoddard, 238 ; A. C. L. Botta, 
 238, 404 ; L. C. Moulton, 238, 
 239) 325 ; Bowles, 239 ; Leland, 
 240; W. Reid, 240, 241, 242, 263, 
 264; Emerson, 243; Rev. Dr. Bar- 
 tol, 259-261 ; Charles A. Page, 
 264 ; Browning, 266, 267 ; George 
 Riddle, 265 ; George Eliot, 270, 
 
 271 ; C. Reade, 271 ; R. H. Davis, 
 
 272 ; Lord Houghton, 273 ; F, P. 
 Cobbe, 274 ; Mrs. Vedder, 277 ; 
 Wm. Black, 279, 28c; Lady Frank- 
 lin, 288 ; J. A. Froude, 289 ; S. L. 
 Clemens, 289, 448, 449 ; J. W. 
 Howe, 290, 291, 296, 297; Sted- 
 man, 291, 294, 295, 300, 301, 338, 
 339> 487) 488; Celia Thaxter, 292; 
 James Parton, 293 ; R. S. Spofford, 
 293; C. Bradlaugh. 298; E. P. 
 Whipple, 300 ; W. Reid, 305, 306, 
 
Index 
 
 593 
 
 307, 308, 309, 326, 327, 328, 340 ; 
 Howells, 321 ; Tuckerman, 321, 
 322 ; '■ H. H.," 322, 323 ; Schenck, 
 339; M. D. Conway, 339, 340; 
 W. Collins, 340, 341, 345, 346, 
 347> 403. 404. 405. 406; H. B. Mil- 
 lard, 342, 343; F. B. Millet, 344; 
 Beaconsfidd, 359 ; A. G. Bell, 359 ; 
 for Prince Imperial, 360; Thomas 
 Connery, 368 ; Wentworth Hughes, 
 369 ; Morell Mackenzie, 370 ; 
 Charles Loundes, 370; H. Schlie- 
 mann, 374 ; J . T. Fields, 386, 387 ; 
 Gail Hamilton, 392 ; W. Reid's re- 
 quest to write her Recollections of 
 George Eliot, 395, 402 ; A. C. 
 Brackett, 401 ; Lawrence Barrett, 
 409 ; a lover, 413, 414 ; Phillips 
 Brooks, 430, 4S8, 489 ; Dr. Bartol, 
 431 ; T. B. Aldrich, 431 ; Eugene 
 Field, 435 ; Laurence Hutton, 436; 
 Betta Hutton, 436 ; Augustus Low- 
 ell, 439, 440 ; Cleveland, 440 ; Judge 
 Stephen Field, 447 ; A. M. Soteldo, 
 Venezuelan Minister, 447 ; George 
 Bancroft, 447, 448 ; Dr. Hale (to 
 a friend of Kate Field's), 460 ; 
 Edwin Booth, 474 ; R. U. Johnson, 
 475 ; Rear-Admiral Jouett, 483, 
 4S4; M. M. Dodge, 484; Geo. A. 
 Brackett, F. H. Forbes, 485 ; Se- 
 reno E. Payne, 48 7 ; Cardinal Gib- 
 bons, 489 ; C. M. Depew, 489 ; 
 Eastman Johnson, 489, 490; E. W. 
 Halford, 490, 491 ; G. W. Curtis, 
 491, 492 ; S. F. Clarke, 492, 493 ; 
 G. W. Holmes, 493, 494; J. R. 
 Lowell, 494, 530, 531 ; Frank Gush- 
 ing, 494, 495 ; W. H. Huntington, 
 495 ; C. W. Stoddard, 496 ; Bertha 
 Palmer, 497 ; Lucy Stone, 504 ; 
 E. C. Stanton, 506; W. T. Harris, 
 507, 508; Jules Bosufv^, 510; Pa- 
 ten6tre, 510, 511 ; Albert Shaw, 517. 
 Field, Kate, letters from 14, 19, 20, 
 21, 25, 26, 27, 33, 34, 35, 49. 50. 5'i 
 52, 53) 54. 59, 60, 61, 85, 86, 87, 88, 
 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 99, 100, 
 101, 102, 103, 104, III, 112, 113, 
 114, 115, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 
 
 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134-138, 
 140, 141, J42, 147, 14S, 150, 168, 
 170, 186, 191-193, 227, 228, 233, 
 24S, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 262, 
 263, 268, 276, 277, 278, 279, 2S0, 
 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 2S6, 291, 
 3191 355, 356, 365, 366, 383. 384, 
 389, 390, 410, 4", 412, 421, 422, 
 423, 437, 438, 439, 452. 453, 454, 
 455, 456, 457, 458, 459, 46°, 462, 
 463, 464, 465, 496, 518, 519, 526, 
 529, 530, 532, 533, 534, 535, 537, 
 538. 539, 540, 544, 545, 548, 549, 
 5'53. 564, 565, 566, 567; diary of, 
 29, 30, 31, 32, 35, 36, 5°, 5', 52, 62, 
 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 
 73, 74, 75-79, 173-184, 196-213, 
 258, 259, 313, 314, 315, 316, 317, 
 
 350-353, 384-386- 
 
 Field, Matthew, leading Catholic in 
 Dublin, 4; came to America, 4; 
 death of, 4. 
 
 Field, Matthew, Jr., recognition of, as 
 poet by Poe, 4 ; promise of, 4 ; 
 verses of, 15; marriage of, 15; 
 takes sea voyage, 16; death of, 16. 
 
 Field, Nathaniel, Elizabethan dram- 
 atist and actor, 4, 368. 
 
 Field. Hon. Stephen, 439, 449. 
 
 Fields, Annie, nee Adams (Mrs. 
 James T.), described by Kate Field, 
 96; writes Kate Field, 149; 170, 
 180, 1S2, 204. 
 
 , James T., 53, 99, 148, 178, 
 
 181; praises Kate Field's Landor 
 papers, 186 ; 199 ; compliments Kate 
 Field's debut as lecturer, 211 ; 219, 
 228 ; writes to Kate Field, 386, 387. 
 
 , Mr. and Mrs. James T., 181, 
 
 182, 188, 207, 244, 245, 366, 433. 
 
 Fields, Osgood and Co., 1S8, 207, 312. 
 
 Fiesole, 94. 
 
 Fifth Avenue, 480. 
 
 Fifth Symphony, 309, 310. 
 
 Firenze, La Bella, 144. 
 
 Florence, Kate Field's dreams of, 84; 
 92; Kate Field's first sight of, 96; 
 she writes from, 95, 96; Mrs. Field 
 joins Kate Field in, 99 ; Miss Cobbe, 
 arrives in, 100; studies of, 103; 
 
 38 
 
594 
 
 Index 
 
 heights of, 107; Kate Field's rooms 
 in, 121 ; prices in, 122 ; Christmas 
 in, 123; 126, 127; link sundered that 
 bound Kate Field to, 136,' burial- 
 ground of, 137, 138 ; Mr. Brown- 
 ing's departure from 142, 143; in- 
 fluence of, on Kate Field, 166; 
 allusion to, by Browning, 172; ro- 
 mance of Kate Field in, 190; 191, 
 
 274. 3". 381. 395. 399. 4°°. 4i4- 
 Florence, Trollope's History of, 156, 
 
 157- 
 
 , Mr. and Mrs. William, 474. 
 
 Florida, the, 547. 
 
 Flower, Charles E., 363. 
 
 Foley, Margaret, her medallion of 
 
 Mrs. Howe, 152. 
 Fontaine, La, %•]. 
 Fontainebleau, 408. 
 Forney, Col. John W., 179,353. 
 Forrest, De, Major, 177. 
 Forrest, Edwin, aided by the Riddles, 
 
 6 ; attends burial of Mrs. Riddle, 7 ; 
 
 Kate Field comments on, 49. 
 Forster, John, 132. 
 Fort, John Brown's, 528. 
 Fortunate Isles, the, 519. 
 " Forty to Twenty ; A Drawing-room 
 
 Drama," title of poem by Kate 
 
 Field, 301. 
 Foster, Mrs., 206. 
 
 Fowler, Mr. (Fowler and Wells), 567. 
 Fox, Kate, 284. 
 Fox, the Misses, 60. 
 France, 486; republic of, 513, 514. 
 Francis, Mr., 389. 
 Franklin, Lady Jane, writes to Kate 
 
 Field, 288. 
 Franqueville, Comte de, 314. 
 Frear, Associate-Justice, 557. 
 Fremont, Gen. John Charles, 150. 
 
 , Jessie, nee Benton, 150. 
 
 French Decoration bestowed on Kate 
 
 Field, 572. 
 "French Flats," Kate Field sees play 
 
 of, 385. 
 French Minister, the, 510. 
 French Republic, the, 509, 5ro. 
 Frothingham, Bessie, 205. 
 , Rev. Octavius B., described by 
 
 Kate Field, 168; invited to opera by 
 Kate Field, 177 ; calls on Kate Field, 
 179; writes to Kate Field, 217, 218, 
 219; Kate Field's reference to, 252, 
 
 zi^< 338- 
 
 Froude, James Anthony, writes to 
 
 Kate Field, 289. 
 Fuller, Chief-Justice, 471, 496. 
 
 , George, 487. 
 
 , Margaret (Countess d'Ossoli), 
 
 117. 
 Fulton, Chandos, 338. 
 
 Gabriel, Virginia, 362. 
 "Gabrielle: or A Night in the Bas- 
 
 tile," translated from Dumas by J. 
 
 M. Field, 86; Kate Field appears 
 
 in, 336- 
 Gad's Hill, 230 ; Dickens invites Kate 
 
 Field to, 311. 
 Gaetano, Mile., 310. 
 Gaiety, theatre of, 367. 
 Gainsborough, Thomas, 370, 380, 382, 
 
 412. 
 Galaxy, the, 159. 
 Galileo, 396. 
 Gamp, Mrs., iSi, 182. 
 " Gamp's Garret," 243. 
 Garcia, Manuel, Kate Field first 
 
 meets, 267; estimates her voice, 
 
 267; 270; prices of, for lessons, 
 
 279; hears Kate Field lecture, 285; 
 
 calls on Kate Field, 312. 
 Garcia, see Viardot. 
 Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 115, 121, 122. 
 Garrick, David, 230, 370. 
 Garrison, William Lloyd, praises Kate 
 
 Field on platform, 223. 
 Gasparin, M., 130. 
 Gaudens, St., Augustus, 487. 
 Gazzaniga, Mme., 180. 
 Gear, Governor, 487. 
 Gentiles, the, 433, 536. 
 Gerome, Jean Leon, 161. 
 Gestone, Mrs., 157. 
 Giacommetti, 176. 
 Gibbon, Edward, 121, 122. 
 Gibbons, Cardinal James, 489. 
 Gifford, R. Swain, 150. 
 Gilbert, William Schwenck, 471. 
 
Index 
 
 595 
 
 Gilder, Jeannette L., aids Kate Field, 
 
 469 ; honorable place in letters of, 
 
 469 ; advises Kate Field, 469. 
 
 , Martena, 385. 
 
 , Richard Watson, writes to Kate 
 
 Field, 235, 236, 237, 291, 292; 517. 
 Gilders, the, 319. 
 Glacier, the Muir, 453. 
 Gladstone, Hon. William Ewart, 195, 
 
 283, 297. 
 Gliick, Johann Christoph von, 160. 
 Goddard, Arabella, 365. 
 
 , D. O., 217, 252. 
 
 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 79, 
 
 160, 563. 
 Goodwin, Juliet, nee Bryant, 205. 
 Goodwood races, the, 311, 315. 
 Gordon, Gen. Charles George, 199. 
 Government, the French, 510; honors 
 
 Kate Field, 512. 
 Grace Church, the, 495. 
 Gramercy Park, 319. 
 " Granadian Girl's Song," 107. 
 Grand Army of the Republic, 462. 
 " Gran Dio morir si giovane," 411. 
 Grant, General Ulysses Simpson, 
 
 200. 
 "Gratiano," 368. 
 Gray, Henry Peters, 150. 
 Greeley, Horace, 148, 240. 
 
 Greene, , 124. 
 
 Gresanowsky, Dr., 122, 123, 136, 192. 
 Grillo, Countess del, see Ristori. 
 Grisi, Giulia, 61. 
 
 Grossbeck, , 183. 
 
 Grossmith, George, 386. 
 
 Grosvenor House, 313. 
 
 Guerrebelli, Mnie. Genevieve, nee 
 
 Ward, 313, 314. 
 Guiteau, 433. 
 Guizot, Frangois Pierre Guillaume, 
 
 257. 
 
 Hale, Rev. Dr. Edward Everett, 73, 
 
 459- 
 
 , Hon. Eugene, 495. 
 
 , Nathaniel, 73. 
 
 Halford, E. W., 490, 491. 
 Hallowell, Gen. Edward M., 186. 
 Halstead, Murat, 233. 
 
 Hamerton, Philip Gilbert, i5i. 
 
 Hamilton, Gail (see Dodge), 397. 
 
 " Hamlet," Hunt's painting of, 153, 
 162 ; Edwin Booth's, 160, 163 ; " The 
 Hamlets of the Stage," title of 
 three papers by Kate Field, 163; 
 Kate Field's agreement with Helen 
 Knowlton's judgment of, 153. 
 
 Hanan, Mrs., 115. 
 
 Handel, 230. 
 
 " Hap-Hazard," title of book by Kate 
 Field, 283, 420. 
 
 Harcourt, Sir Vernon, 312. 
 
 Harpers, the, 321 ; magazine of, 301 ; 
 Harper's Ferry, 528. 
 
 Harris, Augustus, 529, 530. 
 
 , Hon. William T., 507, 50S, 
 
 Harrison, Hon. Benjamin, 471, 491. 
 
 , Caroline, nee Scott (Mrs. Benja- 
 min), 490. 
 
 Hart, Joel, 103. 
 
 Harte, Bret, 248. 
 
 Hartwell, Judge, 557. 
 
 Harvard University, 373, 429, 572. 
 
 Harves, M., 253. 
 
 Hassard, John R. G., 181, 339. 
 
 Hauk, Minnie (Mme. de Wartegg), 
 
 530- 
 Havana, 177. 
 Hawaii, 63, 523, 524, 527, 532, 535, 
 
 536, 537, 542. 543, 544, 547, 54?, 
 550, 556, 569, 570, 576; King of, 
 
 523- 
 Hawaiian Capital, 555, 595. 
 "Chronicle," the, 552; conditions 
 
 of, 535, 543 ; government of, 543, 
 
 557- 
 
 Hotel, 534. 
 
 Hawaiians, the, 546, 552. 
 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 92, 361. 
 
 , Una, 279. 
 
 Hawthornes, the, 85, 2^^, 361. 
 Hay, Hon. John, 159, 248, 313, 389. 
 Hayden, Joseph, 204, 309. 
 Hayes, Fanny (Mrs. Rutherford B.), 
 
 392- 
 Haymarket, theatre of, 274. 
 Hearst, Mrs. Phoebe, 496. 
 " Hearth and Home," 199. 
 Hedge, Rev. Dr. Frederic Henry, 73. 
 
596 
 
 Index 
 
 Heine, Heinrich, 96. 
 "Held by the Enemy," 458. 
 "Hellenics," Landor's, 112. 
 Hemenway, Mrs. Mary, 464, 494. 
 Hennessy, , 150, 251, 252, 262, 
 
 3i5> 379- 
 Hennessys, the, 306. 
 Henry, Sir Thomas, 315. 
 " Henry VIII.," 369. 
 Hensler, La, 54. 
 " Herald," the Boston, Kate Field's 
 
 letters to, 393, 424-426, 477; 
 
 Washington representative of, 512. 
 , the New York, 308, 309 ; 324, 
 
 342,353, 360; 369; 384- 
 
 , the Salt Lake, 532. 
 
 Heron, Matilda, 336. 
 
 Herring, Miss, 351, 352. 
 
 Hesiod, 97. 
 
 " Hiawatha," 49. 
 
 Higginson, Col. Thomas Wentworth, 
 147; writes to "Independent" 
 praising Kate Field, iSo; 184, 203, 
 205, 270. 
 
 Highton, Mr. and Mrs. Henry, 570. 
 
 Hill, Senator and Mrs., 314, 422. 
 
 Hillard, George Stillman, 220, 228. 
 
 Hilo, 549. 
 
 Hinckley, Alexis, 224. 
 
 "Hippomenes," 106. 
 
 " Histcire Morale des Femmes," 201. 
 
 Hitchcock, , 159. 
 
 Hoare, Sir Henry, 283. 
 
 Hogarth, Miss, 405. 
 
 Holbeins, the, 277. 
 
 Holland, Sir Henry, 284. 
 
 , Dr. Josiah Gilbert, gives re- 
 ception to Kate Field, 384; 385, 
 401 ; Mrs. Holland, 385. 
 
 Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, 219, 244, 
 433 ; writes to Kate Field, 494. 
 
 Holy Angels, the Feast of, 10. 
 
 Holy Spirit, the, 577. 
 
 Homans, Mrs., , 205. 
 
 Homer, 563. 
 
 Homer, Winslow, 150. 
 
 Honolulu, 229, 309, 421 ; Kate Field 
 arrives in, 526 ; 533 ; Kate Field's 
 sympathy with progress in, 536 ; 
 Kate Field's Christmas in, 538; 
 
 Kate Field a favorite in, 539, 540 ; 
 visit to country house, 544 ; inci- 
 dent of Kate Field in, 546 ; 547 ; 
 Kate Field returns to, 550; Kate 
 Field's death in, 556; beautiful rites 
 over Kate Field in, 569; 570, 573, 
 
 577- 
 
 Hood, Thomas, 209. 
 
 Hopekirk, Mme. Helen, 471. 
 
 Horncliff, Lord, 157. 
 
 Hcsmer, Harriet, universal favorite in 
 Rome, 90, loi ; gift of Lady Ash- 
 burton to, 136 ; exhibition of Bea- 
 trice Cenci of, 160. 
 
 Houghton, Lord Monckton Milnes, 
 invites Kate Field to dine, 273; 
 calls on Kate Field, 313 ; enter- 
 tained in New York, 338. 
 
 House of Commons, 299, 362. 
 
 , Edward, 307. 308. 
 
 , the White, 183. 
 
 How, Charles, 159. 
 
 , John, 208, 209. 
 
 Howard, General, 182. 
 
 Howe, Julia, nee Ward, 47, 14S ; her 
 country house described by Kate 
 Field, 151 ; medallion of, 152; gives 
 a tea, 167 ; 186 ; relates incident of 
 Kate Field, 189 ; presides at club 
 tea, 201 ; gives reception, 207; 215, 
 224 ; one in noble group, 234 ; her 
 opinion of Boston society, 244 ; calls 
 on Kate Field, 290 ; writes Kate 
 Field, 290, 291, 296, 297 ; Kate 
 Field meets in California, 463. 
 
 , Maud, see Elliott. 
 
 , Dr. Samuel Gridley, 148. 
 
 , Dr. and Mrs,, 243, 245. 
 
 Howells, Eleanor, nee Mead (Mrs, 
 William Dean), 209, 478. 
 
 , William Dean, Kate Field's 
 
 impressions of, 185 ; 209, 245 ; writes 
 Kate Field, 321 ; 478. 
 
 Hughes, Wentworth, 399. 
 
 Hunt, Helen, nee Fiske, later Mrs. 
 Jackson, Kate Field meets at Mrs. 
 Botta's, 177; at Newport, 185, 209, 
 278 ; writes to Kate Field, 322, 323, 
 384; Kate Field visits grave of, 
 422. 
 
Index 
 
 597 
 
 Hunt, Waiiam Morris, Kate Field's 
 
 critidsm of, 152, 153. 
 Huntington, Rev. Dr. Frederic D., 
 
 writes to Kate Field, 495 . 
 Hutton, Betta (Mrs. Laurence), 436. 
 
 , Laurence, 159, 343, 436. 
 
 Hyde" Parlc, 361. 
 
 "Hymn to tiie Wiltshire Laborers," 
 
 recited by Kate Field, 4S3. 
 
 " I AM the Resurrection and the Life," 
 
 571- 
 
 Ibsen, Henrik, 472. 
 
 Ideals, Kate Field's devotion to, 577. 
 
 "Idfies Napoleoniennes," 122. 
 
 Immortality, 30, 566 ; proof of, by 
 science, 575, 576. 
 
 Imperatora, Mme. dell', 114. 
 
 Ingersoll, Robert G., 455. 
 
 Inman, Mr., 159. 
 
 Inness, George, 487. 
 
 Institute, the Essex, 347. 
 
 , the Lowell, 438, 439, 440. 
 
 "Instrument, A Musical," 115. 
 
 "Inter-Ocean," the, 457, 471. 
 
 International Council, the, 448. 
 
 Invalides, Hotel des, Kate Field de- 
 scribes grand chapel of, 87. 
 
 Iowa, 437. 
 
 Irving, Sir Henry, 367, 411, 457. 
 
 , Washington, 231. 
 
 "Isabella," 180. 
 
 Islands, the Hawaiian, 532. 
 
 Isle of Wight, 352, 385. 
 
 Isles of Shoals, 184. 
 
 Italian, 572. 
 
 theatre, 371. 
 
 Italy, 71, 76, 84; Kate Field's love 
 for, 89; liberty of, 98, 113; pro- 
 duction of, in great actors, 116; 121, 
 
 165,311,35°, 486- 
 Ives, Albert, 3S3. 
 Iwilei, 546. 
 
 Jackson, Helen Hunt, nee Fiske, see 
 Hunt. 
 
 , Mr., 385. 
 
 Park, 492, 
 
 "Jacques," 183. 
 
 James, Henry, pire, 201, 202, 205 ; 
 
 writes to Kate Field, 217, 218 ; 219, 
 
 224, 245, 366. 
 James, Henry,^/j, 184, 211. 
 
 , 'Dr. William, 23, 194. 
 
 Jameson, Anna, nee Murphy, 71. 
 Janauschek, Mme. Francesca Made- 
 Una, 18S. 
 Janiculum, the, 89. 
 Japan, 380, 536, 545, 551, 569. 
 Jarves, Isabella, nee Kast (Mrs. James 
 
 Jackson), 99, 
 , Hon. James Jackson, estimates 
 
 Kate Field, 96. 
 Jeanne d'Arc, Mr. Whipple's lecture 
 
 on, 187, 276. 
 Jefferson, Joseph, 338. 
 Jenkins, Josephine, 393. 
 Jerusalem, 577. 
 
 "Jesus, Lover of my Soul," 556. 
 Jewell, Mrs., 232, 314, 
 Jewett, Rear-Admiral, 483, 484. 
 Jews, the, 536. 
 Joachim, Joseph, 362. 
 Johnson, Eastman, 150, 489, 490. 
 , Robert Underwood, writes to 
 
 Kate Field, 474, 475; 517. 
 Jones, Mrs. Inigo, 284, 314. 
 
 , Hon. and Mrs. P. C, 544. 
 
 Jouett, Prof. Benjamin, 286. 
 Judd, Chief-Justice A. F., 557. 
 Judge, William Q., 472. 
 "Juliet," 469. 
 "Julius Csesar," 179. 
 Juneau, 453. 
 
 Kailua, 549. 
 Kalakaua, 523. 
 * ' Kala wahine nananao ' ' (the Learned 
 
 Woman), appellation of Hawaiian 
 
 natives for Kate Field, 544. 
 Kamehameha, 548. 
 Kanaka, 546. 
 Kanakas, 543. 
 Kane, John T., 445. 
 " Kathcrine, Cousin," Eugene Field's 
 
 sobriquet for Kate Field, 434, 435. 
 
 , " Queen," 369. 
 
 " Kathleen Mavourneen," 171, 344, 
 
 352- 
 Kauai, 545, 548. 
 
598 
 
 Index 
 
 Kawaihae, 549. 
 
 Kaye, Col. M. C, 495. 
 
 Kean, Mrs. Charles, 285. 
 
 Keemle, Charles, 11, 16. 
 
 , Mary Katherine, 346. See Kate 
 
 Field. 
 
 Kelley, Mrs. , 179. 
 
 Kemble, Fanny, nee Siddons, 178 ; 
 reads " Midsummer Night's Dream," 
 " The Tempest," "Julius Cajsar," 
 179 ; reads " Measure for Measure " 
 and " Merry Wives of Windsor,' ' 
 180; Kate Field's opinion of, iSo ; 
 1S3, 195, 274, 311; characterizes 
 Niagara, 437. 
 
 Kenilworth, 286. 
 
 Kensett, 150. 
 
 "King John," 311. 
 
 King, Rev. Dr. Thomas Starr, 75, 214. 
 
 Kinglake, Robert Arthur, 313. 
 
 Kingsley, Rev. Charles, 283. 
 
 Kinney, Mrs. Elizabeth C, 219. 
 
 Knowles, Sheridan, supported by 
 Eliza Riddle, 10. 
 
 Knowlton, Helen M., writes "Art 
 Life of Hunt," 153. 
 
 Kohlsatt, Hon. H. H., great generos- 
 ity to Kate Field, 527 ; estimates 
 Kate Field's work, 569; an execu- 
 tor of her will, 572. 
 
 , Mr. and Mrs. H. H., Kate 
 
 Field's attachment to, 527. 
 
 " Kreutzer Sonata," Kate Field's 
 opinion of, 478, 479. 
 
 Labouch^re, Henry, 351. 
 
 La Farge, John, 184, 185. 
 
 " La Favorita," 177, 178 
 
 Lanai, 547. 
 
 " La Naranjera," 388. 
 
 Landon, Arthur J., 213. 
 
 Landor, Walter Savage, 95; offer of, 
 to teach Kate Field Latin, 96 ; 
 chivalry to Kate Field, ro3, 104; 
 scholarly elegance of, 106; praises 
 Kate Field, 107 ; verses of, to Kate 
 Field, 109 ; Browning's reference to, 
 no; sends autograph copy of his 
 "Hellenics" to Kate Field, 112; 
 123; Kate Field gives camelia to. 
 
 123 f Kate Field's sympathy for, 
 124 ; Kate Field writes of, 132, 
 133, 139; "Last Days of," three 
 papers by Kate Field published in 
 the " Atlantic Monthly " for April, 
 May, and June, 1866, 144; 156, 186, 
 209 ; story of album given to Kate 
 Field, 380, 381 ; Mrs. Landor, 156. 
 
 Lanesville, 212. 
 
 Langmaid, Dr., 199. 
 
 Larcom, Lucy, 433. 
 
 " La Scala," 100. 
 
 " Lascia ch' io pianga," 205. 
 
 " Laura Hawkins," stage r61e of Kate 
 
 Field, 337- 
 " La Velleda," 411. 
 Lawrence, Abbott, 65. 
 
 , Mr., 184. 
 
 Lawson, Victor F., 435. 
 Lawton's Valley, 151. 
 Lay, Oliver, 124, 125, 246, 379. 
 Layard, Sir A., 374. 
 " Lead, Kindly Light," 556. 
 "Lear, King," 179. 
 " Leaves from a Lecturer's Note- 
 Book," title of papers by Kate Field, 
 
 232. 
 Lee, General, 182. 
 Leghorn, no, n2, i\^, n5, 138, 165, 
 
 266. 
 Legouv6, Gabriel Marie Jean Baptiste, 
 
 202, 203. 
 Leighton, Sir Frederick, 157. 
 Leland, Charles G., 239. 
 Lely, Sir Peter, 412. 
 Leonard, Ella S., 470. 
 Leslie's, Frank, the, 403. 
 Leslie, Henry, 283. 
 Leupp, Francis P., 470. 
 Levasseur, Louis Gustave, 92. 
 Lewes, George Henry, described by 
 
 Kate Field, loi ; 274, 397, 398, 399, 
 
 400. 
 , Marian nee Evans, impression 
 
 of, on Kate Field, loi ; 39S, 491; 
 
 later Mrs. Cross. See George Eliot. 
 Leweses the, toi, 362. 
 Lewis, Ida, 212, 242. 
 Lexington, the Hotel, 497. 
 Liberia, 313. 
 
Index 
 
 599 
 
 Library, the Boston Public, 295, 296, 
 
 477- 
 Life, symphonic nature of, 117. 
 
 Light, into that, 577. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 112, 147, 148 ; Kate 
 Field's prophetic words of, 162; 441. 
 
 College (Oxford), 285, 286. 
 
 , Solomon, 295. 
 
 Lind, Jenny, 19, 20, 61. 
 
 Lingle, Caroline C, 470. 
 
 Linton, W. L., 186, 206, 20S. 
 
 ' ■ Lippincotfs Magazine," 176, 178, 
 199. 
 
 Listermann's concerts, 209. 
 
 Little, Brown, and Co., manuscript 
 offered them by J. M. Field, 17. 
 
 " Little Maid of Arcadie," 384. 
 
 Livermore, Mary A., nee Ashton, 214 ; 
 generous nature of, 216 ; noble work 
 of, 222 ; unequalled in impassioned 
 power, 224 ; 234, 243, 244. 
 
 Locke, D. J. (pseud.. Petroleum V. 
 Nasby), 200, 206. 
 
 Lockhart's "Life of Scott," 128. 
 
 Lodge, Anna Cabot, 201. 
 
 "Lohengrin," 321. 
 
 Lombard, Mr. (lecture agent em- 
 ployed by Kate Field), 170, 181, 
 
 385- 
 Lombardy, 127. 
 "L'Ombra," 353. 
 London, 383, 390, 461, 529. 
 Lone Mound, 437. 
 Long, Mr., 250, 251. 
 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 148, 
 
 iSi, 244, 245, 366. 
 Longs, the, 181, 205. 
 Long Walk, the (at Wmdsor Castle), 
 
 3T2. 
 
 Loring, Gen. Charles C, 382. 
 
 Loring, , 170, I77> '78, I79; '^i. 
 
 Lorraine, Claude, 382. 
 
 Lothrop, Rev. Dr. S. K.. called "a 
 
 clerical Silenus," by Weiss, 206, 
 
 228; compliments lecture by Kate 
 ' Field, 430. 
 Lotus Eaters, the (ideal sculpture), 
 
 loi. , 
 
 Louis XVI., Chapelle Expiatoire to 
 
 memory of, 86. 
 
 Loundes, Charles, 370. 
 
 Lourdes, 316. 
 
 Louvre, the, 88. 
 
 " Love's Labor Lost," 369. 
 
 Lowell, James Russell, 148, 198, 215, 
 244, 245; criticism of, on Hamlet, 
 407 ; Kate Field's comments on, 
 452; writes to Kate Field on copy- 
 right, 494 ; letter of, to Kate Field 
 from Spain, 530, 531. 
 
 Lowry, Hon. and Mrs. Thomas, 485. 
 
 Loyal Legion, the, honors Kate Field, 
 452, 540. 
 
 Lucca, Pauline, 270, 41T. 
 
 Lucifer, 292. 
 
 Ludlow (Messrs. Ludlow and Smith), 
 
 15- 
 "Luminara, the, of Pisa," title of 
 
 paper by Kate Field, 198, 205. 
 Lunt, George, editor of "Boston 
 
 Courier," offers Kate Field letters 
 
 to the Brownings, TroUopes, Haw- 
 
 thornes, 85. 
 Luther, statue of, 277, 
 Lyman, Rufus, 549. 
 Lytton, Sir Edward Bulwer (Owen 
 
 Meredith), 95, 138; contrast of, with 
 
 Browning, 142. 
 
 Macbeth, William (composer). 50. 
 
 " Macbeth, Lady," Kate Field's de- 
 scription of Ristori's, 166; Janau- 
 schek's, 188; Kate Field and others 
 discuss, 315; Ristori's, 371, 529. 
 
 MacFarland, Henry, 512. 
 
 Mackay, John W., Kate Field's esti- 
 mate of, 452. 
 
 Mackenzie, Dr. Morell (later Sir Mo- 
 rell), attends Kate Field, 279; call 
 described by Kate Field, 280; Mrs. 
 (later Lady) Mackenzie, 280; in- 
 vites Kate Field to speak at banquet, 
 286; writes to Kate Field, 369, 370. 
 
 Mackintosh, A. St. M., 557. 
 
 Macmillans, the, 285. 
 
 MacMonnies, Frederick, 487. 
 
 "Mad on Purpose," a comedy trans- 
 lated from the Italian by Kate Field, 
 164. 
 
 Madeleine, the, 86. 
 
6oo 
 
 Index 
 
 Madonna, the, 397 ; of the Column of 
 Immaculate Conception, 90. 
 
 Madrid, 434, 530. 
 
 Maillard, Victor, 463. 
 
 " Maison Rouge," 313. 
 
 Malloy, Charles, 68. 
 
 Marble, Daniel, offers prize for best 
 American comedy, won by Joseph 
 M. Field, 5. 
 
 Marblehead Point, 432. 
 
 Maretzek, Max, 201. 
 
 Marie Antoinette, Chapelle Expiatoure 
 to memory of, 86, 311. 
 
 "Marigold, Doctor," 170, 176, 181, 
 182. 
 
 Mariposa, 583. 
 
 Marqu^ze, Mrs. Emile, 431, 432. 
 
 Marston, Dr. Westland, co-operates 
 with Kate Field in adapting Spanish 
 play, 351; writes poem for Kate 
 Field to recite before Shakespeare 
 Memorial /?/«, 363, 364; 365, 530. 
 
 Martin, Aim6e, 204. 
 
 " Martin Chuzzlewit," 180. 
 
 Martineau, Harriet, 244. 
 
 " Mary Stuart," Ristori's, 183. 
 
 "Masks, The Wisdom of," title of 
 humorous paper by Kate Field in 
 "The Public Spirit " for February, 
 1868. 
 
 Mason, Hon. , 88. 
 
 Matinee T6]^phonique, arranged by 
 Kate Field, 352. 
 
 Maui, 545; Kate Field leaves Hono- 
 lulu for, 547, 548 ; Kate Field notes 
 beauty of, 545, 552. 
 
 Maurier, Du, George, 313. 
 
 May, fateful month of, for Kate Field, 
 189; death of Kate Field, May 19, 
 
 1896; 554; 555- 
 Mazzini, Giuseppe, 96, 490. 
 McArthur, A., Judge, 439. 
 McCandless, Senator, 557. 
 McCarthy, Justin, 150, 278. 
 McCormick, Hon. R. A., 396. 
 McCullough, John, 299. 
 McGlenen, Harry, 211. 
 McGrew, Dr. John S., Kate Field 
 
 writes of, 540; her death in his 
 
 home, 554, 556. 
 
 McGrew, Mrs. John S., 554. 
 
 McLean, Col. R. H., 557. 
 
 Mead, Edwin D., 344. 
 
 Mears, Mrs., 77. 
 
 " Measure for Measure," 180. 
 
 Mecher, Ralph, 385. 
 
 "Medea," 1S3. 
 
 " Meg Merrilies," 92. 
 
 "Meistersingers," the, Kate Field 
 
 enjoys opera of, 411 ; 529,530. 
 " Melnotte, Claude," Fechter's, 404. 
 "Men and Women," 122. 
 Menard (colored M. C), 207. 
 Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix, 456. 
 Mercadante, Saverio, 388. 
 " Merchant of Venice," 368. 
 "Merry Wives of Windsor," 180. 
 Metaphysics, 76. 
 Miami, the University of, 307. 
 Michigan, 437 ; Lake of, 505, 506. 
 " Middlemarch," 285. 
 "Midsummer Night's Dream," 179. 
 Mierwinsky, 411. 
 Mignanelli Gardens, the, 90. 
 Milan, the Cathedral, 100. 
 "Mill on the Floss," Kate Field's 
 
 criticism on, 108 ; 398. 
 Millais, Sir John, 314. 
 Millard, Henry B., writes to Kate 
 
 Field, 343. 
 Miller, Joaquin, 338. 
 Millet, Frank D., 344 ; his portrait 
 
 of Kate Field exhibited, 379; 402, 
 
 410. 
 Millet, Jean Franjois, 152, 161. 
 Mills, Ellis, Consul-General, 536, 556, 
 
 402. 
 Milton, John, 230. 
 Minneapolis, 462, 485. 
 " Miranda," 179. 
 Modjeska, Helena (Countess Bozenta) 
 
 Kate Field sees in "Odette," 411; 
 
 412. 
 Molifere, Jean Baptiste Poquelin, 34. 
 Molokai, 534. 
 "Monologue, Musical, on Eyes and 
 
 Ears in London," original comedy 
 
 by Kate Field, 375 ; is completed, 
 
 384 ; given in New York, 386 ; 
 
 praised by "Tribune," 3S6; given 
 
Index 
 
 6di 
 
 in Boston, 3S6 ; praised by J, T. 
 
 Fields, 386, 387 ; Kate Field's beau- 
 tiful dancins in, 387 ; given in 
 Tacoma, 455. 
 
 Monroe, doctrine of, 536. 
 
 Montaigne, Michel Eyquem, 456, 563, 
 
 Monte Nero, 114. 
 
 Montez, Lola, 28, 33, 34, 
 
 Moran, Fanny, 333. 
 
 Moret, Seiior and Seiiora, 310, 313, 
 
 315) 3I7- 
 
 Moriartj", Mrs. George Andrews, nee 
 Sheffield, 572. 
 
 Morgue, the, 86. 
 
 Morris, George P., 11. 
 
 Mormon church, the, 532. 
 
 problem, the, 514. 
 
 Mormonism, Kate Field's discussion 
 of, 420 ; lectures on, 438, 439, 440 ; 
 Dana's description of Kate Field, 
 on, 443-447, 448. 
 
 Mormons, the, 428, 429, 430. 
 
 Morse, Mr., 106. 
 
 Morton, Hon. Levi P., 207. 
 
 Moscheles, Felix, 315. 
 
 Motley, Hon. John, 246. 
 
 Mott, Lucretia, 234. 
 
 Moulton, Ellen Louise, nee Chandler, 
 early dawn of poetic fame, 148 ; 
 1S6 ; takes long viialks with Kate 
 Field, 108; 19S, 200; writes of Col. 
 Higginson's address, 205 ; Kate 
 Field lunches with, 207; 208 ; wrrites 
 to "Tribune" of Kate Field's lec- 
 ture, 228, 229 ; writes to Kate Field, 
 238, 239 ; 324, 338 ; visits in Edin- 
 burgh with Kate Field, 343. 
 
 Mounet-SuUy, 329. 
 
 Mount Auburn, 71, 259, 309, 570, 572. 
 
 Dor^, 410, 412. 
 
 Mozart, Johann Chrisostom Wolf- 
 gang Amadeus, 61, 63, 309. 
 
 "Much Ado About Nothing," 364, 
 
 457- 
 Mueller, Mr., 546. 
 Miiller, Max, 435. 
 Munger, Mr., 352. 
 Munson, Mr., 209. 
 Murdock, James, 202. 
 Murray, Rev. W. H. H., 212. 
 
 Murray, Hon. Ely H., Kate Field's 
 
 estimate of, 424 ; 425, 426, 439, 445, 
 
 452. 
 Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston, 
 
 295 ; Vedder's portrait of Kate 
 
 Field in, 103. 
 
 , Kensington, 313. 
 
 Music, N. E. Conservatory of, 185. 
 
 Hall, the Boston, 224. 
 
 " Music is Paradise to me," among 
 
 Kate Field's last words. 
 
 Naples, 89, 403. 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, 31 ; tomb of, de- 
 scribed by Kate Field, 86, 87 ; Na- 
 poleon, Louis, 88, 105, no, 114, 
 40S. 
 
 Nasby, Petroleum V., see Locke. 
 
 Nash, Mr., 351. 
 
 Nation, the, 179. 
 
 National Marriage Law, advocated by 
 Kate Field, 451. 
 
 National Peace Jubilee, Kate Field 
 reports for " Tribune," 198. 
 
 " Nazione," the, 134. 
 
 Necker, M., 278. 
 
 Needles, the, 421. 
 
 Neilson, Lilian Adelaide, 367. 
 
 Nelson, Hon. , 183. 
 
 New England, 542. 
 
 Newman, John Henry, Cardinal, 556. 
 
 New Orleans, 483. 
 
 Newport, 147, 151, 167, 1S4, 185, 212, 
 305, 419, 509, 539. 
 
 Newton, Rev. Dr. R. Heber, 450. 
 
 New Years of 1897, 572. 
 
 New York, city of, 507, 511. 
 
 Niagara Falls, 437. 
 
 Nice, 127. 
 
 " Nicholas Nickleby," 181. 
 
 Nilsson, Christine (Mme. Rouzaud), 
 
 3'9- 
 Nineteenth Century Club, the, 450. 
 Noble, General, 312. 
 Nonn^, Mme. George, nee Warren, 
 
 167. 
 " Norma," 178. 
 
 Normandie, de, Rev. Dr. James, 295. 
 "North American, the," 452. 
 Norton, Prof. Charles Eliot, 181, 450. 
 
602 
 
 Index 
 
 Novalis, pseud, of Friedrich von Har- 
 
 denberg, 354. 
 " Numi che intesi mai," 388. 
 Nunanu, Cemetery of, body of Kate 
 
 Field temporarily placed in, 537. 
 
 Observatory, Lick, 464. 
 
 Occultus, no7n de plume ol WHWzm Q. 
 Judge in "Kate Field's Washing- 
 ton," 472. 
 
 "Odette," Modjeska's, 411. 
 
 "Officier de I'lnstruction publique," 
 title conferred on Kate Field with 
 decoration of " Palms of Academy," 
 
 509- 
 "Old Lady Mary," 456. 
 Oliphant, Mrs. Margaret, 456. 
 Olympic Theatre, 306. 
 "O Lord of Hosts," 205. 
 " Ophelia," 233. 
 Orcagna, Andrea di Clone, 396. 
 O'Reilly, Boyle, 245; Kate Field's 
 
 words on, 565. 
 Oriental, immigration of, 535. 
 "Orpheus," song in, 160; sculpture 
 
 of *' Orpheus with his Lute," 365. 
 " Orlando," 369. 
 Osborne House, 352, 353, 385. 
 Osgood, James R., 170, 178, 179, iSi, 
 
 185, 186, 188, 206, 208, 209, 212, 
 
 213, 280, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407. 
 
 , Mrs., 365. 
 
 Ossoli, Margaret, Countess of. See 
 
 Fuller. 
 "Othello," Salvini's, 91, 
 Owen, Robert Dale, 206. 
 
 , Mrs. Robert Dale, 207. 
 
 Oxford, 285, 286. 
 
 Pacific, coast of, 462, 467; railroad, 
 
 34- 
 Pacini, Giovanni, 171. 
 Paderewski, Ignace, portrayed by Kate 
 
 Field, 514. 
 Page, Charles A., 264, 347. 
 Palace, the Crystal, 312. 
 Palais Royal, the, 92; theatre of, 385. 
 Palazzo Pitti, 121. 
 
 Vecchio, 102. 
 
 Palmer, Bertha, nee Honor6 (Mrs. 
 
 Potter), 497. 
 
 Palmer, Manager, 335. 
 
 , General, 421. 
 
 "Palms of the Academy," decoration 
 
 conferred on Kate Field, 509-514. 
 " Pan in Wall Street," 219. 
 "Paracelsus," 22. 
 Paradise of the Pacific, 535. 
 Paris, 86, 89, 92, 139, j6i, 192, 371, 
 
 372, 3S3> 39=) 461- 
 , Anna, 348 ; journeys with Kate 
 
 Field, 549, 551. 
 Park, Jackson, 498. 
 
 Parker, , 206. 
 
 , Edgar, 213. 
 
 , Theodore, Story's bust of, 103; 
 
 cameo medallion of, 103, 137. 
 Parliament, 229, 420. 
 Parnell, Charles Stewart, 383. 
 Parsons, Dr. Thomas William, 85, 
 
 244. 
 Parthenon, 493. 
 Parton, James, 292, 293. 
 Partons, the, 212. 
 " Pasquale, Don," 95. 
 Paten6tre, M., 510, 511. 
 Patti, Adelina, 311; Kate Field's esti- 
 mate of, 411. 
 Pattison, Emilia, nee Strong, Mrs. 
 
 Mark, 271, 311. See Dilke. 
 
 , Mark, 2S5. 
 
 "Paul FerroU," 399. 
 
 Paw Paw, 437. 
 
 "Pax Vobiscum," favorite phrase of 
 
 Kate Field's inscribed on memorial 
 
 cross, 496, 573. 
 Payne, Sereno E., 487. 
 Peabody, Elizabeth, 245, 279. 
 
 , Rev, Dr. Francis G., 572. 
 
 Peabodys, the, 283. 
 
 Peace Jubilee, the, 212. 
 
 Peirce, Prof. Benjamin J., 244. 
 
 " Pele, the goddess," 537. 
 
 Pelligrini, Domenico, 315. 
 
 Penini, pet name of Robert Barrett 
 
 Wiedemann Browning, 103, 142. 
 " Pen Photographs," Kate Field's 
 
 book on Dickens' readings, 20, 184, 
 
 235- 
 Perabo, Ernst, Kate Field hears inter- 
 pret Schubert, 182, 198. 
 
Index 
 
 603 
 
 " Phasma," nom de plume of Mat- 
 thew Field, Jr., 15, i5. 
 
 Phelps, Hon. Edward J., 511. 
 
 , Elizabeth Stuart (later Mrs. 
 
 Herbert D. Ward), 244; writes to 
 Kate Field, 163, 164. 
 
 Philbrick, Hon. John D., Kate Field 
 writes of, to "Tribune," 372-374. 
 
 Phillipps, Adelaide, receives her first 
 lesson in music from Mrs. Sanford, 
 47 i 49; lyi<^ genius of, 160; Kate 
 Field sings in concert given to, 171 ; 
 hears Dickens with Kate Field, 175 ; 
 Kate Field's critique on in ** Tri- 
 bune," 177; makes debut in "La 
 Favorita," 177 ; 178, iSo, 182, 183 ; 
 sails for Europe, 194; 195, 199, 200, 
 201, 203, 204; appears with Parepa 
 Rosa, 205 ; 246, 262, 275 ; travels 
 with Kate Field, 315, 316. 
 
 , Mathilde, 262; travels with Kate 
 
 Field and her sister Adelaide, 315, 
 316. 
 
 Phillips, Stephen, tragic poem of, 98. 
 
 , Wendell, 148 ; Kate Field hears 
 
 lecture of, 1S5, 186 ; encourages 
 Kate Field to lecture, 188; 200; 
 described by Kate Field, 207 ; 214, 
 220, 224, 566. 
 
 Philosophy, 76. 
 
 Piazza di Spagna, 89. 
 
 Piazza Independenza, 122. 
 
 "Picayune," the New Orleans, 115, 
 122. 
 
 Piccalomini, 114. 
 
 Picknell, E. W., 487. 
 
 Pickwick, 181. 
 
 Piedmont, 121. 
 
 Pierce, Hon. Franklin, 85, 92; calls 
 on Kate Field in Rome, 93. 
 
 Pindan, the, 90. 
 
 Pioneer Day, 433. 
 
 Planchette, 211, 347. 
 
 " Planchette' s Diary," title of book by 
 Kate Field, 195, 207. 
 
 Plato, 202, 203. 
 
 Players, The, Edwin Booth's sugges- 
 tion for name of department in 
 "Kate Field's Washington," 473, 
 474- 
 
 Plymouth Church, 221. 
 
 Plympton, Eben, 336. 
 
 Poe, Edgar Allan, characteristic letter 
 of, 21, 22; quotes Elizabeth Bar- 
 rett's estimate of his poetry, 22 ; 
 cites Mr. Browning's praise, 22. 
 
 " Poems before Congress," 103. 
 
 Poems, Mrs. Browning's, 64. 
 
 Poetry, 76. 
 
 , Oriental, 561. 
 
 Politics of Utah, 451. 
 
 Pomeroy, Senator, 1S2. 
 
 Pomeroys, the, 183. 
 
 Ponsonby, Gen. Sir Thomas, 352. 
 
 , Lady, 352. 
 
 Pope, the, 100. 
 
 " Portia," 368, 369. 
 
 Portuguese, the, 536, 545. 
 
 " Posdicheff," 478. 
 
 "Post," the N. Y. Evening, 513, 
 
 517- 
 , the George Maxwell, honors 
 
 Kate Field, 481. 
 Potomac, the, 471. 
 Potter, Major Geo. C, 557. 
 Pound, Gov. and Mrs., of Wis., 227. 
 Poussin, Nicolas, 382. 
 Powell, Mrs., 207. 
 Powers, the Hiram, 138. 
 Prescott, Harriet, see Spofford, 107 ; 
 
 her work estimated by Kate Field, 
 
 loS; engagement of, 125 ; 126. 
 President, the, of Co-operative Dress 
 
 Association, 409, 410. 
 
 , the, of U. S., 384, 543. 
 
 " Press," the Philadelphia, 239. 
 , the University, Kate Field visits, 
 
 188. 
 Prie, Marquise de la, 336. 
 Prince, Frederick Octavius, 295. 
 Prince Imperial, the, 360. 
 Priory, the, 400. 
 Problem, the Hawaiian, 525. 
 Procter, Mrs., 311. 
 Prohibitionists, the, 459, 460. 
 " Prospero," 179. 
 Psychology of childhood, 12. 
 Public spirit, the, 176, 177. 
 Pullman, George M., 422. 
 Puna, 549 
 
6o4 Index 
 
 Punchbowl, the crater of, 540. 
 Pyramids, the, 493. 
 Pyrenees, the, 314. 
 
 Queen, the. Her Majesty Victoria, 
 
 351. 352> 359.4"- 
 Queen's Theatre, 311, 
 Quincy, Josiah, 170, 181 
 Quixote, Don, 113. 
 
 Rachel, Mile., 52, 86; Kate Field's 
 comparison of, with Ristori, 116. 
 
 Racine, Jean, 20, 34. 
 
 Radical Club, the, 186, 188. 
 
 Raphael, 382, 514. 
 
 Raymond, John T., Kate Field plays 
 leading support to, 337. 
 
 Reade, Charles, 271. 
 
 Realm of Unseen, Kate Field's inter- 
 est in, 34S. 
 
 Ream, Vinnie, 183. 
 
 Rebellion, the, 157. 
 
 " Red Cotton Night-cap Country, 
 The," Browning reads to Kate 
 Field, 306. 
 
 Redfield, J. S., 195, 201. 
 
 Reed, Hon. Thomas B., 447, 471. 
 
 Reeve, Wybert, 345. 
 
 Regent Street, 314. 
 
 Reid, Hon. Whitelaw, 232, 240, 241, 
 242 ; writes to Kate Field on 
 her mother's death, 263, 264; 305, 
 306, 307, 308, 319 ; congratulates 
 Kate Field on stage debut, 326 ; 
 reply to her arraignment, 326, 327; 
 acknowledges gifts from Kate Field, 
 32S ; 33S ; asks Kate Field to write 
 of George Eliot for " Tribune," 395 ; 
 replies to Kate Field's congratula- 
 tions, 402. 
 
 Renan, Ernest, 373. 
 
 "Republic," Plato's, 205. 
 
 " Republican," the Springfield, 149, 
 177, 18S, 202, 203, 239, 470. 
 
 " Review of Reviews," the, 517. 
 
 Revolution, the French, 480. 
 
 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 300. 
 
 Ricci, Giovacchini, 114. 
 
 Richelieu, Cardinal, 87; Booth's, 411, 
 
 Riddle, Charlotte, nes Cutter (Mrs. 
 Edward), 54, 125. 
 
 , Cordelia, 47. See Sanford. 
 
 , Edward, 6. 
 
 , Francis A., 515. 
 
 , George, exquisite letter of, to 
 
 Kate Field, 265 ; 572. 
 
 , Mary, nee Lapsley, parentage 
 
 of, 6 ; goes on stage, 6 ; marries 
 William Riddle, 6 ; dramatic life 
 of, 6 ; aids Forrest, 6 ; death of, 7 ; 
 burial of, 7. 
 
 , William, 6. 
 
 Ripley, George, 176 ; Kate Field 
 meets at Mrs. Botta's, 177; writes 
 to Kate Field, 292. 
 
 , Mrs., 180. 
 
 Ristori, Adelaide (Marchesa del 
 Grillo), first meeting of, with Kate 
 Field, 116; great r6Ies of, 116; 
 enters into life of Kate Field, 
 iiS; 122; first visits America, 164; 
 her Lady Macbeth described by 
 Kate Field, 166 ; as Marie Antoi- 
 nette, 176 ; Kate Field calls on, 183 ; 
 184, i8g, 195, 209, 211 ; Kate Field 
 special critic of, 248; Kate Field 
 sees in Paris, 291 ; Kate Field calls 
 on in London, 310; plays Marie 
 Antoinette, 311 ; interest of, in tele- 
 phone, 350 ; invites Kate Field to 
 join her in Switzerland, 370, 371 ; 
 Kate Field compares with Rachel, 
 371; Kate Field's friendship with, 
 372 ; Kate Field describes meeting 
 with, in London, 529 ; title of mono- 
 graph by Kate Field in '^Atlantic 
 Monthly" for April, 1867, 144. 
 
 Ritchie, Anne, nee Thackeray, 158. 
 
 River Pearl, 525. 
 
 " Robert Elsmere," 461. 
 
 Roberts, President, of Liberia, 313. 
 
 Robinson, Lionel, 315. 
 
 ■ , Mr. (nom de plume " Warring- 
 ton "), 203. 
 
 R61es, great, of Ristori, 116, 
 
 Romagnoli, Marchesa, 113. 
 
 " Romance, The, of a Poor Young 
 Man," 87. 
 
 Romani, 92, 93, 95. 
 
Index 
 
 605 
 
 Rome, 85, 88 ; Kate Field's enchant- 
 ment with, 89 ; Charlotte Cush- 
 man's home in, 89 ; Salvini in, 89 ; 
 92; Brownings arrived in, 93; gg, 
 100, no, 121, 126, 127, 128, 167, 
 172, 232, 350, 403. 
 
 "Romeo and Juliet," 367; Irving's 
 production of, 411. 
 
 "Romola," 161, 399. 
 
 Rosa, Parepa, 205. 
 
 "Rosalind," 369. 
 
 " Rosalind's Epilogue," 352. 
 
 Rosencrans, Carrie, iSo, 184, 201,206. 
 See Vedder. 
 
 Rossini, Gioachino Antonio, 50, 61. 
 
 Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 206, 208, 278. 
 
 Rubinstein, Anton, 306, 308. 
 
 Rudersdorf, Mme., 248, 251. 
 
 Ruskin, John, letter of Mrs. Brown- 
 ing's to, 95. 
 
 Russell, , M. P., no. 
 
 , Mrs., 202. 
 
 " Russia," the steamship, 486. 
 
 Rusponi, Count and Countess, 113. 
 
 Rycroft, Mr., 549. 
 
 Saints, Latter Day, 424, 428. 
 
 "Salve Maria," 388. 
 
 Salvini, plays Othello, 91 ; 116. 
 
 Samson, 205. 
 
 Samuelson, M. P., 312, 313, 
 
 Sand, George, 97, 399, 403. See 
 Dudevant. 
 
 Sanford, Cordelia, nee Riddle (Mrs. 
 Milton T.), birth of, 6; letter from 
 Mrs. Field, 18 ; letters from Kate 
 Field, 33, 34, 35, 39, 99, 100, no, 
 "5> 123, 132, 134, 138, 141, 142, 
 143, 208, 212, 262, 355, 356, 359, 
 383, 385, 423; characteristics and 
 gifts of, 46 ; marriage of, 46 ; 
 contrasted with Mrs. Field, 46 ; 
 vivid personality of, 47 ; gives Ade- 
 laide Phillipps her first music les- 
 son, 47 ; 49 ; generous offer to Kate 
 Field, 51 ; 54, 59, 5i, 64 ; ill health 
 of, 66 ; 70, 72, 75 ; sails for Europe, 
 85 ; embarks for Rome, 88 ; secures 
 apartment, 89 ; visits Naples, 89 ; 
 welcomed by Miss Cushman, 90 ; 
 
 winter at the Brunswick, 477 ; death 
 of, 508 ; Kate Field's words of, 509. 
 
 Sanford, Milton T., 35, 39; wealth and 
 influence of, 46; 47, 51, 52, 54; 
 generous purposes of, 56; 59, 61, 
 64, 66, 70, 72, 73, 75 ; talks of 
 Europe, 76 ; decides on foreign tour, 
 84 ; sails, 85, 86; embarks for Rome, 
 88 ; secures apartment, Sg ; makes 
 trip to Naples, 89, '90 ; 132, 227. 252, 
 253 ; Kate Field writes to, 278, 284 ; 
 355. 356. 357, 419: death of, 423. 
 
 San Francisco, Kate Field writes from, 
 455; lingers in, 526, 532; press 
 club of, gives reception to Kate Field, 
 533 ; funeral rites over Kate Field 
 in, 570: Mayor of, 571, 
 
 Sanitary Commission, the, 130, 150. 
 
 San Juan, mining district of, 421. 
 
 San Raphael, 564. 
 
 Santa Claus, 383. 
 
 Santley, Mr., 365. 
 
 Sargent, Gen. Horace Binney, 203. 
 
 , John Singer, 487. 
 
 , Rev. John T., 261. 
 
 , Mrs. John T., iS5, 188, 206. 
 
 Savonarola, 156, 399, 400. 
 
 Sayles, Henry, 181. 
 
 "Scenes in Clerical Life," 122, 398. 
 
 Schenck, Gen. Robert C, Kate Field 
 meets celebrities at his house, 284 ; 
 hears Kate Field lecture, 285 ; Kate 
 Field attends reception of, 313 ; 
 dines with Mme. Moret, 315 ; writes 
 to Kate Field, 33g. 
 
 Schliemann, Dr. Heinrich, 27; writes 
 to Kate Field, 374; Kate Field ad- 
 vocates as Consul to Athens, 38g, 
 
 390- 
 Schofield, Gen. William, 301. 
 Schubert, Franz, Kate Field praises 
 
 Perabo's interpretation of, 182. 
 Scochdopole, 388. 
 Scott, Clement, 347. 
 "Scribner's Magazine," 301. 
 Selwyn's theatre, 211. 
 Seminary, Lasell, 45, 56. 
 
 , Mrs. Smith's, 25. 
 
 Servia, 486. 
 
 Severance, Mrs. Caroline M., 209. 
 
6o6 
 
 Index 
 
 "Seville, Barber of," i6o. 
 
 Sewall, Mrs. Anna, 198. 
 
 , Mrs. May, nee Wright, estimates 
 
 Kate Field as lecturer, 448. 
 
 Seward, Hon. William H. 157. 
 
 " Seyd Nimetallah of Kuhistan, Song 
 of," 561. 
 
 Seymour, Hon. William, 147. 
 
 " Shadows of Christmas Eve," sketch 
 Kate Field, 240. 
 
 Shakespeare, William, 4 ; Kate Field 
 copies from, 96 ; referred to, in lec- 
 ture by Kate Field, 231; 324; Kate 
 Field's love for, 422; 529, 530, 531; 
 Kate Field refers to, 563; lines from, 
 on memorial cross to Kate Field, 
 572. 
 
 , William (London composer) ,365. 
 
 Shakespeare's church, 368. 
 
 Shakespeare Memorial Association, 
 object of, 363 ; Kate Field's interest 
 in, 363 ; fete for benefit of, 364, 365 ; 
 Kate Field sings songs for benefit of, 
 " I Know a Bank," '• Where the Bee 
 Sucks," " Blow, blow, thou Winter 
 Wind," " Should he Upbraid," 365 ; 
 fund of, 366; Kate Field organizes 
 matinee for benefit of, 366, 367, 368; 
 S. M. A. thanks Kate Field, 369. 
 
 Memorial Theatre, 364, 368. 
 
 Shaw, Albert, 517. 
 
 , Col. Robert Gould, 1S6. 
 
 Sheldon, Mme. Anna, 34. 
 
 " She wore a Wreath of Roses," Kate 
 Field sings, 54. 
 
 Sherman, General, 157. 
 
 Shoreham, the, 471, 
 
 Sicilys, the two, 121. 
 
 Siddons, Boaden'siife of, 179. 
 
 , Mrs., 188. 
 
 Siena, 12S. 
 
 Sikes, WiUiam, 200. 
 
 "Silas Marner," 398, 399. 
 
 Simmons, Edward, 487. 
 
 Simms, Hon. 207. 
 
 Simpson, , painter of early por- 
 trait of Kate Field, 31. 
 
 " Sir Rohan's Ghost," 125. 
 
 Sismondi, 278. 
 
 Sisyphus, task of, 214. 
 
 Sloane, Mr. and Mrs., 209. 
 Smalley, George A., 307 ; Mrs. 
 Smalley, 314; Smalleys, the, 311, 
 
 3>2. 313- 
 
 Smith, Joseph, 429. 
 
 (Ludlow and Smith), 15. 
 
 — — , Sarah, nee Riddle (Mrs. W. 
 H.), 6. 
 
 , Mr., 209. 
 
 Smithsonian Institute, the, Kate Field 
 visits, 164; 455; chapel of, 487. 
 
 Society, the Dramatic Authors', Kate 
 Field's membership of, 412. 
 
 Socrates, 202, 396. 
 
 " Song of the Shirt," 209. 
 
 Sontag, Mme. Henriette, 84. 
 
 Soteldo, Senior A. M., 447. 
 
 Souza, de. A., 557. 
 
 Spain, Kate Field first thinks of vis- 
 iting, 311 ; arrived in, 317 ; sojourn 
 in, 318 ; described by Kate Field, 
 319 ; Lowell writes Kate Field of, 
 
 530, 531- 
 
 "Spain, Ten Days in," title of book 
 by Kate Field, 496. 
 
 Spanish language, 486. 
 
 "Spectator," the, 63. 
 
 Spencer, Herbert, 313, 362. 
 
 Spenser, Edmund, 230. 
 
 Spinoza, 183. 
 
 Spiritualism, 24, 78, 79. 
 
 Spofford, Harriet, nee Preston (Mrs. 
 Richard), io8. See Preston. 
 
 , Richard S., 77; engaged to 
 
 Miss Preston, 125; writes to Kate 
 Field, 293. 
 
 Spoffords, the, 183. 
 
 Squires, Hon. , 492. 
 
 St. Charles theatre, 364, 368. 
 
 St. Denis, royal vault of, 86. 
 
 St. Elmo, 220. 
 
 St. Nicholas, 484. 
 
 St. Paul's, 89, III. 
 
 St. Peter's, 88. 
 
 St. Pietro, heights of, 90. 
 
 Stafford House, 315. 
 
 "Stage, A Conversation on," title of 
 paper by Kate Field in the "At- 
 lantic Monthly " for March, 1868, 
 144. 
 
Index 
 
 607 
 
 Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, Dean of 
 Westminster, 577. 
 
 , Dowager, Lady, 286. 
 
 , Henry M., 495. 
 
 Stanton, Elizabeth, nee Cady, 234, 
 504. 
 
 , Hon. William M., 1S2. 
 
 Stratford-on-Avon, 365. 
 
 Stead, William, Kate Field's estimate 
 of, 502, 503. 
 
 Stebbins, Emma, 90, 91 ; talent of, for 
 sculpture, 92; completes bust of 
 Charlotte Cushman, 101. 
 
 Stedman, Edmund Clarence, receives 
 gift of Poe's letter to J. M. Field, 
 23 ; writes of his Foe collection, 23, 
 14S, 219; verses to Kate Field as 
 Hypatia, 246, 247 ; jeu iV esprit to 
 Kate Field, 2S8 ; writes Kate Field, 
 
 294, 295> 3°o> 3°'. 308, 319. 487, 
 488; loyal friendship of, for Kate 
 Field, 329; writes to "Tribune" 
 in re Kate Field's stage debut, 
 33°~355i 3^6 ' /*" d'esfrit to Kate 
 Field, 435; 438. 
 
 Sterling, Mme. Antoinette, 365. 
 
 Stevens, Hon. , 183. 
 
 Stillson, Hon. , 183. 
 
 Stoddard, Prof. Charles Warren, 
 writes Kate Field, 496 ; verses of, 
 524 ; book of, the last one read by 
 Kate Field, 552. 
 
 , Elizabeth, nee Barstow, writes to 
 
 Kate Field, 238. 
 
 Stone, Lucy, 222 ; morning star among 
 women, 234 ; welcomes Kate Field 
 into suffrage ranks, 504. 
 
 , Mrs., 383. 
 
 Story, William Wetmore, 103, 159; 
 erroneous attributing to, of Kate 
 Field's sketch of Mrs. Browning in 
 "Atlantic Monthly" for Septem- 
 ber, 1861, 140. 
 
 Storys, the, 138, 167. 
 
 Stowe, Harriet, nee Beecher, 32, 99, 
 
 102. 
 
 Strakosch, Maurice, 34, 177. 
 
 "Straws," nom de flume of Joseph 
 M. Field, 149; " Straws, Jr." early 
 nom de flume of Kate Field, 149. 
 
 Sturgis, Thomas, 209. 
 
 Sullivan, Sir Arthur, 365, 388. 
 
 , Margaret, nke Buchanan, noble 
 
 tribute to Kate Field, 562. 
 
 Sumner, Charles, 148, 183, 244. 
 
 "Sun," the New York, 542. 
 
 Superintendent, the National, of Edu- 
 cation, 507. 
 
 Sutherland, the Duchess of, 102, 
 
 Swan, Judge, 455. 
 
 Swedenborg, Emanuel, 61. 
 
 Swinburne, Charles Algernon, 338. 
 
 Switzerland, 461. 
 
 Symphony Concerts, the, 188, 204. 
 
 Tacoma, 473. 
 
 " Tale, A Moving," sketch by Kate 
 Field published in " Harper's Mag- 
 azine," 204. 
 
 Talvo, Mile., 113, 114. ' 
 
 Tappan, Mrs., 208. 
 
 Tasso, 563. 
 
 Taylor, Bayard, 336, 33S ; comments 
 on Kate Field, 516. 
 
 , General Charles, brings urn con- 
 taining ashes of Kate Field's body 
 from San Francisco to Chicago, 571. 
 
 , John, 433. 
 
 , Mrs. P., Kate Field visits in 
 
 London, 262, 266, 306. 
 
 Telephone, the Bell Co., 358. 
 
 " Ten Days in Spain,"' title of book 
 by Kate Field, 317. 
 
 "Teresa," 183. 
 
 Terry, Ellen, 367 ; " Juliet " of, com- 
 mended by "Kate Field's Wash- 
 ington," 411, 457. 
 
 Tesla, Nicola, 350. 
 
 Testament, the New, 480. 
 
 Thackeray, William Makepeace, 53, 
 182, 244, 362. 
 
 Thames, the, 313. 
 
 Thaxter, Celia, writes to Kate Field, 
 292. 
 
 " The Bertrams," 122. 
 
 " The Cuckoo Song," 369. 
 
 " The Danube River," 200. 
 
 "The Day of My Death," 164. 
 
 "The Ember Picture," 198. 
 
 "The Gilded Age," 337. 
 
6o8 
 
 Index 
 
 " The Gladiator" of Ravenna, 371. 
 " The Honeymoon," 342. 
 " The Lair of the Sea-Serpent," 154. 
 " The New Magdalen," 306, 340. 
 "The Once Mistaken," signature of 
 
 Kate Field to a letter, 193. 
 "The Opera Box," comedietta by 
 
 Kate Field, 336, 337. 
 "The Pomegranates," 22. 
 " The Quiclc and the Dead," 463. 
 "The Raven," 22. 
 " The Scarlet Letter," 476. 
 "The Tempest," 179. 
 " The Two Rabbis," 198. 
 Theocritus, lines of, 558. 
 Theosophical Society, President of, 
 
 472. 
 Thomas, General, 157. 
 
 , Theodore, 498. 
 
 Thompson,*Sir William, 347. 
 Thoreau, Henry D., 320. 
 " Three Clerks," 122. 
 Thurston, Hon. L. A., 537, 556. 
 Ticknor, Howard, 185. 
 Ticknor and Fields, 185. 
 "Times-Herald," the Chicago, 517, 
 
 537, 569, 57!- 
 
 "Times," the London, Kate Field 
 writes editorials for, 360, 374. 
 
 Titian, 300. 
 
 Todd, Mabel, nee Loomis (Mrs. Da- 
 vid P.), 550, 551. 
 
 , Prof, and Mrs. David P., meet 
 
 Kate Field in Hawaii, 550. 
 
 Tolstoi, Count Leo, 478, 479. 
 
 " Tom Brown at Rugby," 122. 
 
 "Touchstone," 183. 
 
 "Transformation" ("The Marble 
 Faun"), 122. 
 
 "Traviata," 411. 
 
 Treason, Mormon, 439. 
 
 "Tribune," the New York, 176, 178; 
 letter in, of Kate Field's, 184; Kate 
 Field describes Perry monument for, 
 185 ; 209; Kate Field writes to, of 
 Adirondacks, 212; comments on lec- 
 ture of Kate Field's, 223; Mrs. 
 Moulton's letter of Kate Field in, 
 228; article of Kate Field's in, 232 ; 
 235, 242; Kate Field serves as 
 
 critic, 248; 277; Kate Field writes 
 editorials for, 282; 292, 293, 294; 
 Kate Field interviews Eradlaugh 
 for, 297 ; 307; Kate Field writes to, 
 312; 314, 451; criticism of Kate 
 Field's stage d'ebut, 326, 3271331, 
 342 ; Kate Field writes to, from 
 Paris, 372; criticises Kate Field's 
 "Musical Monologue," 386; Kate 
 Field writes to, on George Eliot's 
 death, 395-401 ; Kate Field writes 
 to, of C. D. A., 409; editorial com- 
 ment on Kate Field, 458. 
 "Tribune," the Salt Lake, editorial 
 comment on Kate Field in, 428, 
 
 429; 532- 
 
 Trinity Church, 570. 
 
 Trojan, 411. 
 
 TroUope, Anthony, described by Kate 
 Field, J 25 ; calls on Kate Field in 
 Washington, 183 ; sails for Australia, 
 266; 306, 311, 396; comment of, on 
 Kate Field, 573. 
 
 , Beatrice, 123, 124. 
 
 , Theodosia, nee Garrow (Mrs. T. 
 
 A.), 103, 124. 
 
 , Thomas Adolphus, reminis- 
 cences of, in " What I Remember,' ' 
 93, 96, loi, 137, 138; commends 
 Kate Field's sketch of Mrs. Brown- 
 ing, 140; writes to Kate Field, 156- 
 158; 265, 266, 267, 396, 397. 
 
 TroUopes, the Anthony, 194; the 
 Thomas Adolphus, 85, 95, 101, 122, 
 123, 125, 142, 249. 
 
 "Truth," the London, 374. 
 
 Tuckerman, Henry T., 152; writes 
 to Kate Field, 321, 322. 
 
 Tuileries, the, 408. 
 
 Turner, Joseph Mallard William, 381, 
 382. 
 
 Twain's, Mark, 462. 
 
 Twentieth century, the, 480. 
 
 , Club, the, 344. 
 
 "Twickenham Ferry," 171. 
 
 "Two Gentlemen of Verona," 97. 
 
 Tyndall, Dr. John, 362. 
 
 Ulysses, 419. 
 
 " Uncle Tom's Cabin," 32. 
 
Index 
 
 609 
 
 Union Square Theatre, 336, 385. 
 
 United States, the, 513, 514, 536, 543, 
 556, 569; President of the, 571. 
 
 University Theatre, the, 483. 
 
 Unseen, the, communion with, 575. 
 
 Urso, Camilla, 199; testimonial con- 
 cert to, 205. 
 
 Utah, 420, 424, 425, 439, 444, 445, 446, 
 447, 462, 485. 5'4, 532, 576. 
 
 Valley of the Dordogne, 412. 
 
 of the Shenandoah, 528. 
 
 Vanderbilt, Cornelius, pire, 428. 
 
 Vari^t^s Theatre, the, 33, 40. 
 
 Vasseur, Leon, 38S. 
 
 Vatican Palace, the, 88. 
 
 Vaudeville Theatre, the, 87. 
 
 Veblen, Thorstein, 151. 
 
 Vedder, Caroline, nee Rosencrans 
 (Mrs. Elihu), 277. 
 
 ■. , Elihu, meets Kate Field, 100; 
 
 paints portrait of Kate Field, 102; 
 gives picture to Kate Field, 123 ; 148, 
 150, 152; Kate Field's estimate of, 
 154, 155; letters of , to Kate Field, 
 1 59, 160 ; 1 72 ; 1 84 ; contributes eight 
 pictures to Academy, 160; *' Girl 
 Feeding Chickens," 161 ; " A Lost 
 Mind," 161, 162; 167; portrait of 
 Kate Field reproduced, 295; 379, 
 487, 509. 
 
 Vedders, the, 269. 
 
 Venetian window, 419. 
 
 Venice, loi, 265. 
 
 Verdi, Giuseppe, 61. 
 
 Vere, Aubrey de, 133. 
 
 Vernon, Ida, 336. 
 
 "Vestigia," 456. 
 
 Vesuvian Bay, 433. 
 
 Vesuvius, 90. 
 
 Vezin, Hermann, 338, 351, 353, 367, 
 368. 
 
 Via del Babuino, 89. 
 
 Gregoriana, 90. 
 
 Sistina, 89. 
 
 Viardot, PauUne, nee Garcia, 160. 
 
 Victor, King, 122. 
 
 , Mass6, 388. 
 
 Victoria, 454. 
 
 39 
 
 Victoria Hotel, N. Y., 379, 387, 389, 
 
 403. 469- 
 Villa Brichieri, 133, 135, 141. 
 
 Edna, 509. 
 
 Pamfili Doria, 90. 
 
 Villini TroUope, 394, 397. 
 
 Vincent, Bishop (Rev. Dr. John H.), 
 
 459- 
 Vinci, Leonardo da, 382. 
 "Violante," 342, 3S2. 
 Virgil, 133, 563. 
 Vizzevona, M., 557. 
 Volcano House, 550. 
 Voltaire, 244. 
 " Voluntaries," 244. 
 
 Wagnek, Richard, 321 ; Kate Field's 
 
 opinion of, 411 ; operas of, 530 j 
 
 fort of, 186. 
 Waikiki, 546. 
 Wales, the Prince of, 299. 
 Walker, Gen. Francis A., 245. 
 Wallack, Lester, 335. 
 Ward, Genevieve (Countess de Guer- 
 
 bel), early stage name Mme. Guerre- 
 
 belli, 313, 353, 367, 368; "Queen 
 
 Katherine" of, 369. 
 
 , Julia, 245. See Howe. 
 
 , John Quincy Adams, 91. 
 
 , Samuel G., 180, 184, 410. 
 
 , Mrs. Samuel G., \i,o\ fils, 180. 
 
 Warren, Lina, 167, 206, 269, 275. 
 
 See Nonn6. 
 Warwick Castle, 286. 
 Washington, city of, 447, 462, 468, 507, 
 
 508. 
 " Washington, Kate Field's," her first 
 
 idea of, 464 ; initial number issued, 
 
 467, 469 ; interest of, 478, 4S4, 513, 
 
 514. 
 
 medal awarded to, 515, 517, 518. 
 
 , Mount, 168. 
 
 monument, 471. 
 
 , State of, 472. 
 
 Wasson, David A., 186, 219, 220, 228. 
 Waters, Edwin F., ig8, 217. 
 Waterston, Anna, nee Quincy (Mrs. 
 
 Robert C), 199, 200, 201, 202, 205, 
 
 225 ; Rev. and Mrs. R. C, meet 
 
 Kate Field in Paris, 316. 
 
6io 
 
 Index 
 
 Watson, commander U. S. S. "Ad- 
 ams," 557. 
 
 , William, 50, 70. 
 
 Watterson, Col. Henry, 469. 
 
 Watts, George Frederick, R. A., 314. 
 
 Wedderburn, Sir David, 312. 
 
 Weed, Smith M., S13. 
 
 Weeping Water, 437. 
 
 Weiss, Jolin, Kate Field's estimate of, 
 154; 186, 187; anecdote of, 189; 
 lectures on Woman, 19S; calls Dr. 
 Lothrop "a clerical Silenus," 206; 
 207, 252. 
 
 Weld, Theodore, 198. 
 
 Wells (Fowler and Wells), 567. 
 
 Wertheimer, Herr, 529. 
 
 Wetmore, , 458. 
 
 Wheatleigh, Mr., 333. 
 
 Whipple,Charlotte, nee Hastings (Mrs. 
 Edwin Percy), 47; describes Kate 
 Field, 91, 169; brilliant evenings of, 
 
 245 ; 300. 410- 
 
 , Edwin Percy, 148; Kate Field 
 
 hears lecture of, on "Jeanne 
 d'Arc," 187 ; writes of Kate Field, 
 211 ; 214, 224, 228; criticism of, 245 ; 
 299 ; writes to Kate Field, 300 ; de- 
 scribes Kate Field's methods in 
 study of Mormonism, 427, 
 
 Whipples, the, 186, 243, 280, 565. 
 
 Whistler, James McNeal, 315. 
 
 White, Sallie, nee Joy, 393. 
 
 Whittier, John Greenleaf, 198, 244. 
 
 Whitredge, Worthington, 150. 
 
 Wild, Hamilton, 103, 167. 
 
 Wilder, W. C, 557. 
 
 Wight, C. J., 549. 
 
 Willard, Frances Elizabeth, 456, 482. 
 
 Williams, Hon. , 183. 
 
 , Mr. and Mrs. Barney, 52, 251. 
 
 Willis, Hon. , 324, 356. 
 
 , Nathaniel Parker, 393. 
 
 , Mrs. N. P., 207. 
 
 Wilson, Hon. Henry, 182; Dr., 136. 
 " Winds that waft my Sighs to thee," 
 
 211. 
 Wingfield, Lewis, 314. 
 Winter, William, 202 ; letter of, 296 ; 
 
 327, 329 ; criticism of, on Kate 
 
 Field, 357. 
 Winthrop, John, 245. 
 
 , Hon. Robert C., 99. 
 
 , Theodore, 473. 
 
 " With Verdure clad," 199. 
 
 ** Woffington, Peg," Kate Field makes 
 
 dibut in, 324 ; 329, 337. 
 Wollstonecraft, Mary, 198. 
 Woman's Club, the Boston, 170, 181, 
 
 208, 211. 
 " Women in the Lyceum," title of 
 
 lecture by Kate Field, 211, 216. 
 Wordsworth, William, 397. 
 "World, The" (N. Y.), 331. 
 Worth, M., 402. 
 " Woven of Many Threads," article 
 
 by Kate Field, 231. 
 Wyndhams, the, 347. 
 
 Xampi, M. le Docteur, 29. 
 
 Yale, the University of, 368. 
 
 Yellowstone, the Park, 89, 434, 539. 
 
 Yosemite, valley of, 434; Kate Field 
 visits, 437; Kate Field described 
 in, 454 ; 473 ; Kate Field's efforts 
 for, 474, 475. 
 
 Young, John Russell, 176, 185. 
 
 ZiON, 462, 532. 
 
 Zuni, the tribes of, 494. 
 
Cijc^ictorijoftije^ill 
 
 By victor CHARBONNEL 
 
 Translated from the French by Emily Whitney, With an 
 Introduction by Lilian Whiting, author of " The World Beau- 
 tiful," "A Study of Elizabeth Barrett Browning," etc. i6nio. 
 Cloth, extra, ^1.50. 
 
 Our whole criticism might be expressed in the brief exhortation — read it. 
 , . There is not a page which has not some impetus to refiection, some sug- 
 gestion for a higher life, and all given with an originality of mind, a felicity of 
 expression, a simplicity of phrase that fix the thought instantly and clearly. — 
 Literary }Vorld. 
 
 Since Emerson wrote his immortal essays, and Maeterlinck advanced his beau- 
 tiful theories, no finer book on the spiritual life has been written. — Geo. S. 
 Goodwin, in Philadelphia Item. 
 
 Not only is there a striking originality of thought throughout the book, but a 
 style which, losing comparatively little in the admirable translation by Miss Whit- 
 ney, reaches the high French standard of lucidity and ease. — New York Com- 
 mercial Advertiser . 
 
 He makes a forcefiil appeal for living the life of one's own soul and the 
 development of one's own personality by its own inner power. His whole message 
 bids us look within ; it gets at the roots of things ; liis style is admirably clear, 
 terse, and vigorous. — Detroit Free Press. 
 
 The volume takes up the relations of the individual soul to the universe and 
 treats them in a way that is practical, but is also marked by high spiritual aspira- 
 tion. . . The book has great purity and beauty of style, and is, all in all, a notable 
 piece of literature. — hos Angeles Times. 
 
 His words are helpful and stimulating, his optimism contagious and inspiring. 
 He has a faculty for putting things in a form which lingers in the memory. — 
 Brooklyn Times. 
 
 Some of the noblest thoughts contained in this book . . find expression in the 
 ^a?jeic with which it closes. — Chicago Evening Post. 
 
 Full oi consoling optimism and exhales a firm faith in God and his truth. 
 The writer discusses lofty themes. — Revue Bleue. 
 
 At bookstores ; or sent, postpaid, by the publishers, 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN ^ COMPANY, Boston 
 
E^t Wotlli Mtmtifvil 
 
 By LILIAN WHITING 
 
 I know of no volumes of sermons published in recent years which 
 are so well fitted to uplift the reader, and inspire all that is finest and 
 best in his nature, as are the series of essays entitled "The World 
 Beautiful," by Lilian Whiting. — B. O. Flower, in TAe Coming Age. 
 
 J!rJ)0 amorltr JSeaUtiful (JFirat Sedea) " 
 
 i6mo. Cloth, jji.oo. Decorated cloth, JSi. 25. 
 Comprising ; The World Beautiful ; Friendship ; Our 
 Social Salvation ; Lotus Eating ; That which is to Come. 
 
 The World Beautiful about which she writes is no fiir-ofF event to which all 
 things move, but the every-day scene around us filled by a spirit which elevates 
 and transforms it. — Prof. Louis J. Block, in The Philosophical Journal. 
 
 No one can read it without feeling himself the better and richer and happier 
 for having done so. — The Independent. 
 
 JT^e WAqvVH J5eautifUl (Secanb Series) 
 
 i6mo. Cloth, Jfi.oo. Decorated cloth, $i.i$. 
 
 Comprising : The World Beautiful ; Our Best Society ; 
 
 To Clasp Eternal Beauty ; Vibrations ; The Unseen 
 
 World. 
 
 The style is at once graceful and lively. Every touch is fresh. Stress is laid 
 upon inward and spiritual affinities and upon the life of the soul. The real world is 
 beyond us ; we are groping for it in our comparatively dim environment. But 
 though dark, this world is not all dark ; the streaks of brightness in the clouds 
 light us on to the real city of God. — ■ Zion^s Herald. 
 
 JCije faaocra iSeauttful (arfjfru Scrfea) 
 
 i6mo. Cloth, ;Ji.oo. Decorated cloth, gi.25. 
 Comprising : The World Beautiful ; The Rose of Dawn ; 
 The Encircling Spirit- World ; The Ring of Amethyst ; 
 Paradisa Gloria. 
 
 The thoughtful reader who loves spiritual themes will find these pages in- 
 spiring. — Chicago Inter-Ocean. 
 
 Many of her essays give the philosophy of Emerson and of Philips Brooks in 
 a form that will send it far among those who need it. — The Christian Register. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., Publishers, Boston 
 
A STUDY OF 
 By LILIAN WHITING 
 
 Author of "The World Beautiful," "After Her Death," 
 "From Dreamland Sent," etc. With portrait. i6mo. Cloth, 
 extra, jji.zj. 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 LIVING WITH VISIONS. " Summer Snow of Apple blossoms ;" Music- 
 Flow of Pindar ; Friends in the Unseen. 
 
 LOVES OF THE POETS. The Prefigured Friend; Vita Nuova; "One 
 Day, my Siren.** 
 
 IN THAT NEW WORLD. Pisa and Poetry ; In Casa Guidi ; Florentine 
 Days J Walter Savage Lander. 
 
 ART AND ITALY. Individuality of Character ; The Clasped Hands; Kate 
 Field's Records ; IVlrs. Browning's Death. 
 
 LILIES OF FLORENCE. Poetic Rank ; Spiritual Laws ; Modern Scientific 
 Thought ; The Consecration of Genius. 
 
 jftom Jireamlanti g>ent 
 
 VERSES OF THE 
 LIFE TO COME 
 
 By LILIAN WHITING 
 
 New Edition, with additional verses. i6mo. Cloth, extra, 
 lil.oo. Decorated cloth, ;Jil.25. 
 
 Lilian Whiting's verse is lilce a bit of sunlit landscape on a May morning. — 
 Boston Herald. 
 
 Gracefiil, tender, and true, appealing to what is best in the human heart. — 
 The Independent. 
 
 The poems express and reveal her inmost nature, full of affection, longings, 
 appreciation of others, belief in the nearness of the other world. She seems to me 
 to have gained a higher outlook than most of us in a spiritual as well as in an 
 intellectual way. — Kate Sanborn. 
 
 I never saw anything on earth before which looked so much as if just brought 
 fi-om heaven by angel hands as this new edition of " From Dreamland Sent." In 
 the golden sunshine of an Italian morning I have heard the silver trumpets blow. 
 This exquisite book reminds me of them. — Sarah Holland Adams. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, &> CO., Publishers, Boston 
 
By LILIAN WHITING 
 
 Author of "Kate Field: A Record," "The World Beau- 
 tiful," etc. i6mo. Cloth, ^i.oo. Decorated cloth, $1.25. 
 Padded calf, gilt edges, $i-S°- Fi^U crushed morocco, gilt edges, 
 
 ^3.50. 
 
 Comprising : What Lacks the Summer ? From Inmost 
 Dreamland ; Past the Morning Star ; In Two Worlds ; 
 Distant Gates of Eden ; Unto My Heart Thou Livest So ; 
 Across the World I Speak to Thee ; The Deeper Meaning 
 OF the Hour. 
 
 It is an open secret that the friend referred to in this little 
 book is Miss Kate Field, whose portrait appears as the frontispiece. 
 Miss Field had inspired on the part of the writer one of those rare 
 friendships of absolute devotion, the trust and truth and tenderness 
 of which made a kind of consecration of life. The extraordinary 
 psychic communication established since her death between Miss 
 Field and the writer of this book has attracted much attention 
 from scientific investigators of psychic phenomena. 
 
 The beautiful friendship between two natures of exalted spiritual character was 
 not ended by death, but rather made more intimate, more real. Words can hardly 
 do justice to the exquisitely tender spirit in which Miss Whiting tells the messages 
 uttered to her mind by the woman who had passed to the life beyond this. — 
 Boston Herald. 
 
 Opening either of the three volumes of **The World Beautifiil " series, and 
 the collection of verse entitled ** From Dreamland Sent," one beholds the idealist 
 and the poet. But opening *' After Her Death," he beholds the scientist as well. 
 For all her psychic theories and experiences she not only courts, but commands, 
 the most thorough investigation of the world's ablest scientists, as Sir William 
 Crookes, F. W. H. Myers, Lord Kelvin, and Alfi-ed Russel Wallace. She is 
 an epoch-making writer. . . My conviction is that every preacher, reformer, 
 religious editor, and Christian worker should read the books by Lilian Whiting. — 
 Rev. W. H. Rogers, in The Christian Standard. 
 
 We find a firm belief in the possibility of communion with the spiritual world, 
 dignified by a beautiful philosophy inspiring high thoughts and noble purposes. — 
 ff^hig and Courier. 
 
 " After Her Death " has given me the light and help I have so long craved ; 
 it has given me comfort and strength which no other book has ever done. — 
 Cordelia L. Commore. 
 
 At bookstores ; or sent, postpaid, by the publishers, 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, &f COMPANY, Boston 
 
PS 1669.F2Z7 ""'""""' ""''" 
 
 Kate Fleldia record 
 
 3 1924 021 991 678 
 
380 Kate Field 
 
 mother; a drawing of Gainsborough that was very 
 rare and valuable; her grand piano and a well-stocked 
 music stand, and books, and her souvenirs of travel 
 that gave individuality to the rooms. A rosewood 
 writing-desk that had been her mother's was laden 
 with a scattered mass of letters and papers, and sofa, 
 table, and chairs were not unlikely to be strewn with 
 the latest books and magazines and the morning 
 newspapers. Her favorite working-place was in her 
 old steamer chair, a wonderful, storm-beaten bamboo 
 construction which a friend once brought her from 
 Japan, and which ever after followed her in all her 
 vicissitudes of travel until, on her last journey — 
 when she set forth for the islands in the Pacific from 
 which she never returned — it was mj'steriously lost. 
 This chair was as adjustable as its occupant, being 
 arranged to run the whole scale of ups and downs, 
 and the right arm was capable of being transformed 
 into a shelf on which her writing-pad and papers 
 rested. Here in luxurious ease, with her favorite 
 fountain pen, she would lie and write by the hour 
 together. 
 
 Among her treasured souvenirs were the study of 
 Landor's head, painted by Charles Caryll Coleman, 
 and an immense album that Mr. Landor had given 
 to her. " To express a liking for any of Landor's 
 pictures — provided you were a friend — was almost 
 sufficient to cause them to be taken down and pre- 
 sented to you ; hence to praise anything in his pres- 
 ence was exceedingly unsafe," remarked Kate one 
 day when some conversational reference had turned 
 on this album. " I remember looking over his large 
 collection that once belonged to Barker, the English 
 artist, which Landor had purchased to relieve him 
 
Kate Field. 
 From a Crayon Portrait by Vanderweyde, London, 1878.