THE LOVED AND LOST.
There was a young lady on that train. Accomplished and beautiful, she
had already become the object of admiration to many, and was the pride
of fond parents. Blooming, buoyant and hopeful, she was a delightful
companion. Her light, rosy complexion so radiant made her a picture
of health. She used to laugh and say to her mother, “I never have any
compliments except that I am such a healthy looking girl.” Her mother
writes:
“On her sweet, fair hand she wore a slender thread of gold which held
the setting of a very brilliant, though not large, diamond. On the
same finger she wore a heavy, plain, gold ring. Her wardrobe was very
complete and almost entirely new. Her jewelry consisted of turquoise,
pearls, Florentine mosaics and Genoese silver. Everything she had
in the way of ornament or jewelry, she had with her. She had a link
gold necklace and gold handkerchief ring, with a small ring for the
finger attached by a slender chain. A Chegary medal in the form of a
Greek enameled cross, was in her trunk, the sign of honor from the
school where she had graduated. In that trunk were also many dresses,
beautiful and expensive and becoming to her form. All she had, she took
with her. Her bridesmaid’s dress was with her; she was dressed in it
only the week before at the wedding of her dearest friend; she also had
it on at a wedding the night before she started. Yet she was not a mere
child of fashion! She was born to social position and always accustomed
to society; it was the daily habit of her life but brought no
excitement with it. She really cared but little for parties, and often
spoke in that way. She was an active member of the Episcopal church and
very conscientious in the performance of her duties. Her love of sacred
music seemed like an inspiration; I have watched her face become almost
transfigured by a holiness of expression which would flit across it
while she was singing. She had been kept singularly free from the
little vanities and excitements of a young lady’s life, by the grace of
God, who kept her as pure a child as when He gave her to me a precious
infant. Oh! it comes to me now how carelessly I thought of my treasure.
How little I appreciated the great trust that God had given me. How I
thought of her as an ordinary girl.”
The thought of her death had never entered the minds of her parents.
But she died, and everything connected with her was strangely swept
away. The sad consolation of weeping over her silent remains was
denied. Her picture, for which she stood two days before her starting,
was the only mercy which God had vouchsafed the parents. Her mother
again writes: “It would indeed be a comfort to me to have even one
little thing which would seem a part of herself, but we have not one
trace of her personal belongings.” Her funeral was attended in the city
of her home, but the remembrance of her sweet spirit and beautiful
voice was all that the friends had to comfort them.
The following are the eloquent, heart-felt words which dropped from the
lips of an affectionate and aged pastor at her funeral, as the sweet
fragrance of her life and spirit came before his mind. He says:
“I dare hardly venture a few words upon the sweet singer of our
Israel, who was but yesterday the charm, and the graceful and
elegant ornament to our choir. Here she won the confidence and love
of all of us. Here she uttered those sweet sounds which captivated
all hearts. Here she became known to us as the happy, the cheerful,
the glad and always unselfish and noble-natured girl, the almost
idol of her bereaved parents and the pride and joy of her
companions. Here on the last day of our Holy Communion service she
was present and joined with us in that hallowed song of love and
worship which she now repeats and sings with the angels and blessed
spirits of that other and better world, in the presence of God and
His holy angels.”
Thus passed away the beautiful, the lovely, the song-like spirit of
sweet Minnie Mixer.
The story has been told of a young man who so anxiously looked for
some trace of his mother’s body during those sad days in which so much
sorrow was concentrated.
A description of that mother’s character has been well drawn, by those
who knew her.
Mrs. Adelia E. Moore, of Hammondsport, was a member of the Episcopal
Church and the following are the tributes of affection bestowed by the
clergymen who officiated at her funeral.
Rev. Mr. Cushing said of her:
“Can I ever forget her presence and her image under my own roof
during three of the most painfully anxious days of my life,
watching through the long, long winter night; wakeful to every
sound, to every movement, to every want; the low, soothing voice,
the noiseless step, the gentle hand wiping away the clammy sweat,
and standing by us, patiently and willingly, until the crisis
was past? (Mrs. C. dangerously ill of pneumonia is the occasion
referred to.) I could not but refer to this, not only as an
expression of grateful acknowledgement which is justly due, but
also as speaking for many others to whom she was a friend indeed,
because a friend in need--just that kind of need in which, above
all other needs, we feel the weakest, the most utterly powerless in
our own unaided selves.
“In this way, and in these kind offices, she may be said wherever
residing and through all the mature years of her life, to have
gone about doing good, unostentatious, unpublished good; and the
crowning beauty of it all, as respects her, is that she claimed no
merit for these disinterested acts, expected no human recompense,
but performed them; went at any one’s call, because she deemed it
her duty to go, or because it was the impulse of her sympathizing
heart. She was truly the Good Samaritan of her sex.”
The Rev. Mr. Gardner also said:
“And oh! how much we shall all miss her; we shall miss her as a
busy parish worker; we shall miss her in the Sunday-school, and her
class of little children will sadly miss her; so will the Ladies’
Sewing Society miss her, for she was one of its chief workers,
but memorials of her in the Society’s work will long remain--even
longer, perhaps, than any of us shall live to see. And the sick and
afflicted will most surely miss her; for it may be said of her as
it was of her Divine Master, she ‘went about doing good.’ For this
work she had a peculiar fitness--going in and out among the sick
as if it were her special calling. Many are the families where she
has ministered, and with one voice they will attest all that I have
said of her. But above all, her family will miss her--the wife and
mother, the sister and near relative are gone, gone before, not
lost.”
And the Rev. Mr. Howard said of her:
“Of the estimable lady whose death we commemorate, it may be said
that one has been taken out from the bosom of this church and of
this community, who was inspired and warmed with all its life,
religious, social and domestic; alive to, and promoting according
to her ability, everything which conduced to its welfare and
improvement. All the consolation which may ever be legitimately
drawn from Christian character, may be justly claimed and
appropriated here. She was indeed a good woman, and one of the
saints of God.”
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