IN her beautiful home at Pompton, New Jersey, surrounded by the flowers
she loves so dearly, “Marion Harland,” the celebrated writer, held
court, Saturday afternoon. More properly speaking, Dr. and Mrs. Edward
Payson Terhune were “at home” from four to seven o’clock, the occasion
being the celebration of their golden-wedding anniversary.
In front of the house, upon the prettiest bit of lawn for miles about,
was set the present that children and grandchildren gave—a sundial made
of Pompton granite, inscribed with the same pretty legend as that upon
the famous one of Queen Alexandra at Sandringham:
“Let others tell of storm or showers,
I only mark the sunny hours.”
The little room, set aside, as upon the occasion of a real wedding, for
the presents, revealed plenty of sentiment. There was a cake, made from
an old Virginia recipe, baked in the shape that every Virginian bride
in “Marion Harland’s” girlhood days used to have. It had been made by
an old friend. A great bowl of water-lilies stood near by—some one had
got up at daybreak and scoured their haunts to get fifty of them to
present.
Gold purses and gold-trimmed purses—some of them with gold pieces
inside—a gold brooch for the wife and a gold scarf-pin for her husband,
gold fruit-knives, and Austrian glassware were among the gifts.
In the receiving-party were Doctor and Mrs. Terhune’s daughters and
daughter-in-law—Mrs. Christine Terhune Herrick, Mrs. Van de Water, and
Mrs. Albert Payson Terhune. The men of the family did honors as ushers,
and the boys—the grandsons—patrolled the porches and lawn with ices and
salads and delicious yellow-iced cakes.
Golden-rod and golden-glow were everywhere. The porch posts were hidden
from sight by them, and the room where the receiving-party stood was
banked and massed in a bewilderment of blooms.
And “Marion Harland” herself, in her beautiful gown of black lace, with
violet orchids pinned upon her bosom, did honors, much after the manner
of that famous hostess of old whose greeting was invariably “At last!”
and whose parting word was “Already?” Only (unlike that famous hostess)
through her greetings unmistakably rang the note of sincerity.
Everybody wandered about in delightfully informal fashion. Doctor
Terhune and General Buffington gossiped of old times in one corner;
“Marion Harland,” Margaret E. Sangster, May Riley Smith, and two or
three others made an interesting group in another, and reminiscences
were so beautiful and so many—“Do you remember when we used to do this
or that?”—the sentence most constantly heard—that unconsciously you
began to regret that you, yourself, had not lived in those days, so
splendid seemed the sentiment and the honor of the times.
Everybody came who could. Some had travelled all day to get there, and
must travel all night to get home again. Letters—there were hundreds of
them, for it seemed that everybody who even knew her slightly, wanted
to send some word of greeting to “Marion Harland.”
Among the invited guests were Prof. and Mrs. John W. Burgess, Prof.
and Mrs. William H. Carpenter, Prof. and Mrs. B. D. Woodward, of
Columbia; Miss Laura D. Gill, Dean of Barnard College; Dr. and Mrs.
G. H. Fox, Mrs. Henry Villard, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Scribner, Mr. and
Mrs. G. H. Putnam, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Lauterbach, the Rev. Dr. George
Alexander, Mr. and Mrs. Rossiter Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Bigelow
Paine, Mr. and Mrs. George Cary Eggleston, the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. James
I. Vance, of Newark, New Jersey; Mr. and Mrs. Talcott Williams, Mr.
and Mrs. Francis Howard Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Churchill Williams,
of Philadelphia; Gen. and Mrs. A. R. Buffington, Mrs. Margaret E.
Sangster, Miss Ida Tarbell, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Smith.—_Philadelphia
North American_, September 2, 1906.