Vinnie Ream's opinion of me was that I was the most impolitic man that
she had ever known. She meant, by that, that I was always falling out
with people (for instance, I had at once offended the Danes in Rome by
some sharp words about the wretched Danish papers), and in general made
fewer friends and more enemies all the time. She herself won the
affection of everyone she wished, and made everyone ready to spring to
do her bidding. She pointed out to me how politic she had had to be
over her art. When she had wished to become a sculptor, everyone in her
native place had been shocked at the un-femininity of it, and people
fabled behind her back about her depraved instincts. She, for her part,
exerted no more strength than just enough to carry her point, let
people talk as much as they liked, took no revenge on those who spread
calumnies about her, showed the greatest kindliness even towards the
evil-disposed, and so, she said, had not an enemy. There was in her a
marvellous commingling of determination to progress rapidly, of
self-restraint and of real good-heartedness.
On October 20th there was a great festival in Rome to celebrate the
first monthly anniversary of the entry of the Italians into the town.
Young men went in the evening with flags and music through the streets.
Everybody rushed to the windows, and the ladies held out lamps and
candles. In the time of the popes this was only done when the Host was
being carried in solemn procession to the dying; it was regarded
therefore as the greatest honour that could be paid. Everyone clapped
hands and uttered shouts of delight at the improvised illumination,
while the many beautiful women looked lovely in the flickering
lamplight. The 23d again was a gala day, being the anniversary of the
death of Enrico Cairoli--one of the celebrated brothers; he fell at
Mentana;--and I had promised Vinnie Ream to go to see the fête with
her; but she as usual having twenty callers just when we ought to have
started, we arrived too late. Vinnie begged of me to go with her
instead to the American chapel; she must and would sing hymns, and
really did sing them very well.
The chapel was bare. On the walls the ten commandments and a few other
quotations from Holy Writ, and above a small altar, "Do this in
remembrance of me," in Gothic lettering. I had to endure the hymns, the
sermon (awful), and the reading aloud of the ten commandments, with
muttered protestations and Amens after each one from the reverent
Americans. When we went out I said nothing, as I did not know whether
Vinnie might not be somewhat moved, for she sang at the end with great
emotion. However, she merely took my arm and exclaimed: "That minister
was the most stupid donkey I have ever heard in my life; but it is nice
to sing." Then she began a refutation of the sermon, which had hinged
chiefly on the words: "_Thy sins are forgiven thee_," and of the
unspeakable delight it should be to hear this. Vinnie thought that no
rational being would give a fig for forgiveness, unless there followed
with it a complete reinstatement of previous condition. What am I
benefitted if ever so many heavenly beings say to me: "I _pretend_ you
have not done it" if I know that I have!
The last week in October we saw marvellous Northern Lights in Rome. The
northern half of the heavens, about nine o'clock in the evening, turned
a flaming crimson, and white streaks traversed the red, against which
the stars shone yellow, while every moment bluish flashes shot across
the whole. When I discovered it I went up to the Reams' and fetched
Vinnie down into the street to see it. It was an incredibly beautiful
atmospheric phenomenon. Next evening it manifested itself again, on a
background of black clouds, and that was the last beautiful sight upon
which Vinnie and I looked together.
Next evening I wrote:
Vinnie Ream leaves to-morrow morning; I said good-bye to her this
evening. Unfortunately a great many people were there. She took my hand
and said: "I wish you everything good in the world, and I know that you
wish me the same." And then: Good-bye. A door opens, and a door closes,
and people never meet again on this earth, never again, never--and
human language has never been able to discover any distinction between
good-bye for an hour, and good-bye forever. People sit and chat, smile
and jest. Then you get up, and the story is finished. Over! over! And
that is the end of all stories, says Andersen.
All one's life one quarrels with people as dear to one as Ploug is to
me. I have a well-founded hope that I may see Rudolph Schmidt's profile
again soon, and a hundred times again after that; but Vinnie I shall
never see again.
I did not understand her at first; I had a few unpleasant conjectures
ready. I had to have many conversations with her before I understood her
ingenuousness, her ignorance, her thorough goodness, in short, all her
simple healthiness of soul. Over!
When I was teasing her the other day about all the time I had wasted in
her company, she replied: "_People do not waste time with their
friends_," and when I exclaimed: "What do I get from you?" she
answered, laughing:
"_Inspiration_." And that was the truth. Those great brown eyes,
the firm eyebrows, the ringleted mass of chestnut brown hair and the
fresh mouth--all this that I still remember, but perhaps in three months
shall no longer be able to recall, the quick little figure, now
commanding, now deprecating, is to me a kind of inspiration. I have
never been in love with Vinnie; but most people would think so, to hear
the expressions I am now using. But I love her as a friend, as a mind
akin to my own. There were thoughts of our brains and strings of our
hearts, which always beat in unison. Peace be with her! May the cursed
world neither rend her nor devour her; may she die at last with the
clear forehead she has now! I am grateful to her. She has communicated
to me a something good and simple that one cannot see too much of and
that one scarcely ever sees at all. Finally, she has shown me again the
spectacle of a human being entirely happy, and good because happy, a
soul without a trace of bitterness, an intellect whose work is not a
labour.
It is not that Vinnie is--or rather was, since she is dead for me--an
educated girl in the Copenhagen sense of the word. The verdict of the
Danish educational establishments upon her would be that she was a
deplorably uneducated girl. She was incomprehensibly dull at languages.
She would be childishly amused at a jest or joke or compliment as old as
the hills (such as the Italians were fond of using), and think it new,
for she knew nothing of the European storehouse of stereotyped remarks
and salted drivel. Her own conversation was new; a breath of the
independence of the great Republic swept through it. She was no fine
lady, she was _an American girl_, who had not attained her rank by
birth, or through inherited riches, but had fought for it herself with a
talent that had made its way to the surface without early training,
through days and nights of industry, and a mixture of enthusiasm and
determination.
She was vain; she certainly was that. But again like a child, delighted
at verses in her honour in the American papers, pleased at homage and
marks of distinction, but far more ambitious than vain of personal
advantages. She laughed when we read in the papers of Vinnie Ream, that,
in spite of the ill-fame creative lady artists enjoy, far from being a
monster with green eyes, she ventured to be beautiful.
She was a good girl. There was a certain deep note about all that her
heart uttered. She had a mind of many colours. And there was the very
devil of a rush and Forward! March! about her, _always in a hurry_.
And now--no Roman elegy--I will hide her away in my memory:
Here lies
VINNIE REAM
Sculptor
of Washington, U.S.A.
Six-and-twenty years of age
This recollection of her is retained by
One who knew her
for seventeen days
and will never forget her.
I have really never seen Vinnie Ream since. We exchanged a few letters
after her departure, and the rest was silence.
Her statue of Abraham Lincoln stands now in a rotunda on the Capitol,
for which it was ordered. Later, a Congress Committee ordered from her
a statue of Admiral Farragut, which is likewise erected in Washington.
These are the only two statues that the government of the United States
has ever ordered from a woman. Other statues of hers which I have seen
mentioned bear the names of _Miriam, The West, Sappho, The Spirit of
Carnival_, etc. Further than this, I only know that she married Richard
L. Hoxie, an engineer, and only a few years ago was living in
Washington.