Part 10 (1/2)
Nor were Miss Willard's powers of attraction confined to her own s.e.x. Her fascination for men of taste was evident to the end of her blessed life.
Their letters of late date to her proved that ”age could not wither nor custom stale her infinite variety.” Gifted men loved to sit at her feet; she was kindly disposed to the whole brotherhood. I have heard her say, ”If there is a spectacle more odious and distasteful to me than a man who hates women it is a woman who hates men.” She also said: ”If there is anything on earth I covet that pertains to men it is their self-respect.”
She combined in her work a wonderful grasp on details and all the attributes of a great general, and in her temperament the intellectual and the emotional qualities. This woman was capable of sympathy toward every human being; she possessed the rare ”fellows.h.i.+p of humanity,” and while she called out the best and n.o.blest aspirations in others, she was herself the gentlest and humblest and most ready to take reproof. She seemed incapable of envy and jealousy, and it used to be said at National Headquarters: ”If you want a great kindness from Miss Willard it is only necessary to persecute her a little.” With all her discriminating insight into human nature, her social relations were simply her human relations; she had no time for ”society”--only for humanity. She proved to the world that a woman can be strong-minded, gentle-mannered and sweet-hearted at the same time, and that the n.o.blest are the simplest souls.
No truthful pen picture can be given of Miss Willard which does not include some account of the woman she loved best in the world. Lady Henry Somerset, whom she had long admired in the distance, she loved at first sight when this t.i.tled lady came to the World's and National W. C. T. U.
Conventions, at Boston, in 1891. The rank and file of her old friends were startled and sore to discover that the queen of their affections, always before so easy of access, was much absent after business hour in the Convention, from her headquarters at the Revere House, and was with Lady Henry at the Parker House. This emulation of the first place in their leader's regard for a time somewhat threatened the unity and peace of the White Ribbon Army in the United States. But Lady Somerset so swiftly made her own way into American hearts that the littleness of jealousy was discarded, and the women shared with Miss Willard high regard for this n.o.ble Englishwoman--the daughter of the Earl of Somers. The _Review of Reviews_ styled her ”a romance adorning English life.” She had only now come to believe that if the world's woes are to be lessened, women must grapple bravely with their causes and range themselves on the side of those who struggle for justice; and that the heart and instinct and intellect of woman must be felt in the councils of nations. Thus she became the foremost woman in English reforms.
I sent a word to Lady Henry asking if she objected to being mentioned in these pages, and received the following characteristic reply:
”EASTOR CASTLE, LEDBURY, Sept. 28, 1899.
”MRS. C. E. MERRICK:
”My dear friend, I thank you very much indeed for your letter. The words you write about Frances touched my heart. She is indeed the woman of the century who has done more than any other to give woman her place, and yet retain her womanliness. Anything you care to say about me and my poor little efforts belongs to you. Believe me yours in our best and truest bond,
”ISABEL SOMERSET.”
While the love I cherish for Frances Willard was shared, in such degree, with Lady Henry, making a common bond between us, it was Mrs. Hannah Whitehall Smith who introduced me to her in Boston. Writing afterward to Mrs. Harriet B. Kells, in Chicago, at National W. C. T. U. Headquarters in the Temple, I said: ”Give my love to our peerless Frances, G.o.d bless her!
You say she is happy in the enjoyment of the delectable society of Lady Henry Somerset. I would say G.o.d bless Lady Henry too! only she doesn't need any blessing, having already everything on earth any one can wish for, with our chieftain's heart superadded.”
Mrs. Kells repeated this to Lady Henry, who seemed much amused, but did not reveal whether there were yet any unsatisfied longings in her life.
Many American hearts to-day say tenderly, ”G.o.d bless Lady Henry!” for she is a sweet spirit, a brave soul, a true woman. It is no exaggeration to say that these two heroic women are chief historic figures in the records of their s.e.x, and while they were needful to each other their united labor was more important for the world's reforms.
So many arc-lights have been thrown on Miss Willard's character that it may not be possible to add more to the world's knowledge of her. Still I should like to make known a little of her self-revealings in letters to me, on points that ill.u.s.trate her simple greatness. When the Red Cross was making its first essays in America, a postal card came which showed her friendliness to all worthy organizations: ”The Red Cross is _royal_. No grander plan for 'We, Us & Co.' of North and South. If not in W. C. T. U.
I should give myself to it. The n.o.blest spirits of all civilized lands are enlisted. Princes in the old world are its sponsors.”
Again, she wrote: ”How do you like dear Miss Cobbe's book, 'Duties of Women'? I had a letter from her the other day and the creature said, to my astonishment and delight, that she was just as familiar with my name as I was with hers! And she the biggest woman of the age!”
No censure, abuse or disappointment seemed ever to destroy the sweet hopefulness of her spirit. At one time she wrote: ”Somebody's strictures in the _New Orleans Picayune_ gave me many thoughts. I may come under criticism not only in these regards, but in others concerning which there may not have been expression. I sincerely desire to be a true and a growing Christian woman. Some friends can hold the mirror to our faults.”
All the world knows how her soul was moved that the church of G.o.d should uphold our Christian cause, and that the M. E. Conference should seat its women delegates. At that time her word came to me: ”If the M. E. pastors don't endorse our blessed gospel, so much the worse for them--in history, that's all! 'This train is going through; clear the track!' I want you in a delegation to the General Conference in May. Will Mrs. Bishop Parker allow her name added? It is a blessed chance to put a blessed name to a most blessed use. Oh that he may see this for the sake of G.o.d and Home and Humanity!”
Frances Willard's fearless mind threw a searchlight into any new thought that seemed worthy of exploration. She investigated Swedenborgianism, Faith-healing, Psychic and Christian Science--if perchance she might find the soul of truth which is ever at the origin of all error. She was not afraid of the evolution of man, for she early realized that the works and word of G.o.d must harmonize; that when science and religion should better understand themselves and each other there could be no real conflict,--and she joyed in this larger vision. After a visit to my house, in 1896, she wrote thus to Judge Merrick: ”Christ and His gospel are loyally loved, believed in and cherished by me, and have been all along the years; nor do I feel them to be inconsistent with avowing one's position as an evolutionist: 'When the mists have cleared away,' how beautiful it will be to talk of the laws of the universe in our Father's house, and to find again there those whom we have loved and lost--awhile. In this faith I am ever yours.
”FRANCES E. WILLARD.”
It is scarcely worth while to say that she often was the subject of the doctrinaire. At one time a noted advocate of the faith cure was her guest, and was using all diligence to lead Miss Willard to embrace her ”higher life.” She said to this lady: ”Come with me to-day to see a friend, a lovely woman, who seems to me to walk the higher life of faith in great beauty and peace and power for others. I think you will be kindred spirits.” The visit was made, and the two strangers fell into each other's arms, as it were, in the intensity of their spiritual sympathy. On their return to Rest Cottage, Miss Willard quietly said to her guest: ”That friend is one of the most noted Christian Science healers.” Now this was the chiefest of heterodoxies to the faith-healer. ”How I did enjoy her shocked astonishment,” Miss Willard gleefully said to me, ”and I told her I was more than ever sure how truly _one_, in the depths of their natures and their essential faiths, are those who are sincerely seeking to know G.o.d.”
Frances Willard's spiritual life was too overflowing and comprehensive to find expression in creeds. Her own new beat.i.tude, ”Blessed are the inclusive, for they shall be included,” is a fair statement of her doctrine as it related to her human ties, and to all the household of faith. Her whole law and gospel was ”To love the Lord thy G.o.d with all thy heart--and thy neighbor as thyself:” and she found G.o.d in His works as well as in His Word, and His image in every beautiful soul that pa.s.sed her way--and always her spirit ascended unto the Father. She herself was regenerate by love, and she expected love alone--enough of it--to transform the world. She wrote me: ”Be it known unto thee that I believe--and _always_ did--that the fact of _life_ predicts the fact of immortality. Lonesome would it be indeed for us yonder in Paradise were not the trees and flowers and birds we loved alive, once more with us to make heaven homelike to our tender hearts. How rich is life in friends.h.i.+ps, opportunity, loyalty, tenderness! To me these things translate themselves in terms of Christ. Perhaps others speak oftener of Him, and have more definite conceptions of Him as an ent.i.ty; but in the wishful sentiment of loyalty and a sincere intention of a life that shall confess Him by the spirit of its deeds I believe I am _genuine_.”
Just after the Boston World's and National Conventions of 1891, Lilian Whiting--that keen a.n.a.lyzer of motive and character--wrote: ”Frances Willard is a born leader; but with this genius for direction and leaders.h.i.+p, she unites another quality utterly diverse from leaders.h.i.+p--that of the most impressionable, the most plastic, the most sympathetic and responsive person that can possibly be imagined. Her temperament is as delicately susceptible as that of an Aeolian harp; one can hardly think in her presence without feeling that she intuitively perceives the thought. She has the clairvoyance of high spirituality.
”No woman of America has ever done so remarkable a work as that being done by Frances Willard. There is no question of the fact that she was called of the Lord to consecrate herself to this work. She is so simple, so modest, so eager to put every one else in the best possible light, so utterly forgetful of self, that it requires some attention to realize her vast comprehensiveness of effort and achievement. If ever a woman were in touch with the heavenly forces it is she. Frances Willard is the most remarkable figure of her age.”
Some one else in a private letter writes: ”Her strength was because she could love as no one else has loved since the Son of Man walked the earth.”
CHAPTER XIV.
SORROW AND SYMPATHY.
Unwilling to be separated from me, Clara proposed in 1882 that she and her two children should spend the summer in New England. Her Uncle William had placed his furnished house at our disposal; so Mr. Merrick and I had the novel experience of housekeeping in the land of the Pilgrims. We had the social pleasure of entertaining most interesting people, among them Miss Lucretia n.o.ble, the author of ”A Reverend Idol.”