Hall this afternoon. She made a special request that all the seminary
girls should come to hear her as well as all the women and girls in
town. She had a large audience and she talked very plainly about our
rights and how we ought to stand up for them, and said the world would
never go right until the women had just as much right to vote and rule
as the men. She asked us all to come up and sign our names who would
promise to do all in our power to bring about that glad day when equal
rights should be the law of the land. A whole lot of us went up and
signed the paper. When I told Grandmother about it she said she guessed
Susan B. Anthony had forgotten that St. Paul said the women should keep
silence. I told her, no, she didn't for she spoke particularly about St.
Paul and said if he had lived in these times, instead of 1800 years ago,
he would have been as anxious to have the women at the head of the
government as she was. I could not make Grandmother agree with her at
all and she said we might better all of us stayed at home. We went to
prayer meeting this evening and a woman got up and talked. Her name was
Mrs. Sands. We hurried home and told Grandmother and she said she
probably meant all right and she hoped we did not laugh.
_Monday._--I told Grandfather if he would bring me some sheets of
foolscap paper I would begin to write a book. So he put a pin on his
sleeve to remind him of it and to-night he brought me a whole lot of it.
I shall begin it to-morrow. This evening I helped Anna do her Arithmetic
examples, and read her Sunday School book. The name of it is "Watch and
Pray." My book is the second volume of "Stories on the Shorter
Catechism."
_Tuesday._--I decided to copy a lot of choice stories and have them
printed and say they were "compiled by Caroline Cowles Richards," it is
so much easier than making them up. I spent three hours to-day copying
one and am so tired I think I shall give it up. When I told Grandmother
she looked disappointed and said my ambition was like "the morning cloud
and the early dew," for it soon vanished away. Anna said it might spring
up again and bear fruit a hundredfold. Grandfather wants us to amount to
something and he buys us good books whenever he has a chance. He bought
me Miss Caroline Chesebro's book, "The Children of Light," and Alice and
Phoebe Cary's _Poems_. He is always reading Channing's memoirs and
sermons and Grandmother keeps "Lady Huntington and Her Friends," next to
"Jay's Morning and Evening Exercises" and her Testament. Anna told
Grandmother that she saw Mrs. George Willson looking very steadily at us
in prayer meeting the other night and she thought she might be planning
to "write us up." Grandmother said she did not think Mrs. Willson was so
short of material as that would imply, and she feared she had some other
reason for looking at us. I think dear Grandmother has a little grain of
sarcasm in her nature, but she only uses it on extra occasions. Anna
said, "Oh, no; she wrote the lives of the three Mrs. Judsons and I
thought she might like for a change to write the biographies of the 'two
Miss Richards.'" Anna has what might be called a vivid imagination.
1856
_January_ 23.--This is the third morning that I have come down stairs at
exactly twenty minutes to seven. I went to school all day. Mary Paul and
Fannie Palmer read "_The Snow Bird_" to-day. There were some funny
things in it. One was: "Why is a lady's hair like the latest news?
Because in the morning we always find it in the papers." Another was:
"One rod makes an acher, as the boy said when the schoolmaster flogged
him."
This is Allie Field's birthday. He got a pair of slippers from Mary with
the soles all on; a pair of mittens from Miss Eliza Chapin, and Miss
Rebecca Gorham is going to give him a pair of stockings when she gets
them done.
_January_ 30.--I came home from school at eleven o'clock this morning
and learned a piece to speak this afternoon, but when I got up to school
I forgot it, so I thought of another one. Mr. Richards said that he must
give me the praise of being the best speaker that spoke in the
afternoon. Ahem!
_February_ 6.--We were awakened very early this morning by the cry of
fire and the ringing of bells and could see the sky red with flames and
knew it was the stores and we thought they were all burning up. Pretty
soon we heard our big brass door knocker being pounded fast and
Grandfather said, "Who's there?" "Melville Arnold for the bank keys," we
heard. Grandfather handed them out and dressed as fast as he could and
went down, while Anna and I just lay there and watched the flames and
shook. He was gone two or three hours and when he came back he said that
Mr. Palmer's hat store, Mr. Underhill's book store, Mr. Shafer's tailor
shop, Mrs. Smith's millinery, Pratt & Smith's drug store, Mr.
Mitchell's dry goods store, two printing offices and a saloon were
burned. It was a very handsome block. The bank escaped fire, but the
wall of the next building fell on it and crushed it. After school
to-night Grandmother let us go down to see how the fire looked. It
looked very sad indeed. Judge Taylor offered Grandfather one of the
wings of his house for the bank for the present but he has secured a
place in Mr. Buhre's store in the Franklin Block.
_Thursday, February_ 7.--Dr. and Aunt Mary Carr and Uncle Field and Aunt
Ann were over at our house to dinner to-day and we had a fine fish
dinner, not one of Gabriel's (the man who blows such a blast through the
street, they call him Gabriel), but one that Mr. Francis Granger sent to
us. It was elegant. Such a large one it covered a big platter. This
evening General Granger came in and brought a gentleman with him whose
name was Mr. Skinner. They asked Grandfather, as one of the trustees of
the church, if he had any objection to a deaf and dumb exhibition there
to-morrow night. He had no objection, so they will have it and we will
go.
_Friday_.--We went and liked it very much. The man with them could talk
and he interpreted it. There were two deaf and dumb women and three
children. They performed very prettily, but the smartest boy did the
most. He acted out David killing Goliath and the story of the boy
stealing apples and how the old man tried to get him down by throwing
grass at him, but finding that would not do, he threw stones which
brought the boy down pretty quick. Then he acted a boy going fishing and
a man being shaved in a barber shop and several other things. I laughed
out loud in school to-day and made some pictures on my slate and showed
them to Clara Willson and made her laugh, and then we both had to stay
after school. Anna was at Aunt Ann's to supper to-night to meet a little
girl named Helen Bristol, of Rochester. Ritie Tyler was there, too, and
they had a lovely time.
[Illustration: Judge Henry W. Taylor, Miss Zilpha Clark,
Rev. Oliver E. Daggett, D.D., "Frankie Richardson", Horace Finley]
_February_ 8.--I have not written in my journal for several days,
because I never like to write things down if they don't go right. Anna
and I were invited to go on a sleigh-ride, Tuesday night, and
Grandfather said he did not want us to go. We asked him if we could
spend the evening with Frankie Richardson and he said yes, so we went
down there and when the load stopped for her, we went too, but we did
not enjoy ourselves at all and did not join in the singing. I had no
idea that sleigh-rides could make any one feel so bad. It was not very
cold, but I just shivered all the time. When the nine o'clock bell rang
we were up by the "Northern Retreat," and I was so glad when we got near
home so we could get out. Grandfather and Grandmother asked us if we had
a nice time, but we got to bed as quick as we could. The next day
Grandfather went into Mr. Richardson's store and told him he was glad he
did not let Frankie go on the sleigh-ride, and Mr. Richardson said he
did let her go and we went too. We knew how it was when we got home from
school, because they acted so sober, and, after a while, Grandmother
talked with us about it. We told her we were sorry and we did not have a
bit good time and would never do it again. When she prayed with us the
next morning, as she always does before we go to school, she said,
"Prepare us, Lord, for what thou art preparing for us," and it seemed as
though she was discouraged, but she said she forgave us. I know one
thing, we will never run away to any more sleigh-rides.
_February_ 20.--Mr. Worden, Mrs. Henry Chesebro's father, was buried
to-day, and Aunt Ann let Allie stay with us while she went to the
funeral. I am going to Fannie Gaylord's party to-morrow night.
I went to school this afternoon and kept the rules, so to-night I had
the satisfaction of saying "perfect" when called upon, and if I did not
like to keep the rules, it is some pleasure to say that.
_February_ 21.--We had a very nice time at Fannie Gaylord's party and a
splendid supper. Lucilla Field laughed herself almost to pieces when she
found on going home that she had worn her leggins all the evening. We
had a pleasant walk home but did not stay till it was out. Some one
asked me if I danced every set and I told them no, I set every dance. I
told Grandmother and she was very much pleased. Some one told us that
Grandfather and Grandmother first met at a ball in the early settlement
of Canandaigua. I asked her if it was so and she said she never had
danced since she became a professing Christian and that was more than
fifty years ago.
Grandfather heard to-day of the death of his sister, Lydia, who was Mrs.
Lyman Beecher. She was Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher's third wife. Grandmother
says that they visited her once and she was quite nervous thinking about
having such a great man as Dr. Lyman Beecher for her guest, as he was
considered one of the greatest men of his day, but she said she soon got
over this feeling, for he was so genial and pleasant and she noticed
particularly how he ran up and down stairs like a boy. I think that is
very apt to be the way for "men are only boys grown tall."
There was a Know Nothing convention in town to-day. They don't want any
one but Americans to hold office, but I guess they will find that
foreigners will get in. Our hired man is an Irishman and I think he
would just as soon be "Prisidint" as not.
_February_ 22.--This is such a beautiful day, the girls wanted a
holiday, but Mr. Richards would not grant it. We told him it was
Washington's birthday and we felt very patriotic, but he was inexorable.
We had a musical review and literary exercises instead in the afternoon
and I put on my blue merino dress and my other shoes. Anna dressed up,
too, and I curled her hair. The Primary scholars sit upstairs this term
and do not have to pay any more. Anna and Emma Wheeler like it very
much, but they do not sit together. We are seated alphabetically, and I
sit with Mary Reznor and Anna with Mittie Smith. They thought she would
behave better, I suppose, if they put her with one of the older girls,
but I do not know as it will have the "desired effect," as Grandmother
says. Miss Mary Howell and Miss Carrie Hart and Miss Lizzie and Miss
Mollie Bull were visitors this afternoon. Gertrude Monier played and
sang. Mrs. Anderson is the singing teacher. Marion Maddox and Pussie
Harris and Mary Daniels played on the piano. Mr. Hardick is the teacher,
and he played too. You would think he was trying to pound the piano all
to pieces but he is a good player. We have two papers kept up at school,
_The Snow Bird_ and _The Waif_--one for the younger and the other for
the older girls. Miss Jones, the composition teacher, corrects them
both. Kate Buell and Anna Maria Chapin read _The Waif_ to-day and Gusta
Buell and I read _The Snow Bird_. She has beautiful curls and has two
nice brothers also, Albert and Arthur, and the girls all like them. They
have not lived in town very long.
_February_ 25.--I guess I won't fill up my journal any more by saying I
arose this morning at the usual time, for I don't think it is a matter
of life or death whether I get up at the usual time or a few minutes
later and when I am older and read over the account of the manner in
which I occupied my time in my younger days I don't think it will add
particularly to the interest to know whether I used to get up at 7 or at
a quarter before. I think Miss Sprague, our schoolroom teacher, would
have been glad if none of us had got up at all this morning for we acted
so in school. She does not want any noise during the three minute
recess, but there has been a good deal all day. In singing class they
disturbed Mr. Kimball by blowing through combs. We took off our round
combs and put paper over them and then blew--Mary Wheeler and Lottie
Lapham and Anna sat nearest me and we all tried to do it, but Lottie was
the only one who could make it go. He thought we all did, so he made us
come up and sit by him. I did not want to a bit. He told Miss Sprague of
us and she told the whole school if there was as much noise another day
she would keep every one of us an hour after half-past 4. As soon as she
said this they all began to groan. She said "Silence." I only made the
least speck of a noise that no one heard.
_February_ 26.--To-night, after singing class, Mr. Richards asked all
who blew through combs to rise. I did not, because I could not make it
go, but when he said all who groaned could rise, I did, and some others,
but not half who did it. He kept us very late and we all had to sign an
apology to Miss Sprague.
Grandfather made me a present of a beautiful blue stone to-day called
Malachite. Anna said she always thought Malachite was one of the
prophets.
_March_ 3, 1856.--Elizabeth Spencer sits with me in school now. She is
full of fun but always manages to look very sober when Miss Chesebro
looks up to see who is making the noise over our way. I never seem to
have that knack. Anna had to stay after school last night and she wrote
in her journal that the reason was because "nature will out" and because
"she whispered and didn't have her lessons, etc., etc., etc." Mr.
Richards has allowed us to bring our sewing to school but now he says we
cannot any more. I am sorry for I have some embroidery and I could get
one pantalette done in a week, but now it will take me longer.
Grandmother has offered me one dollar if I will stitch a linen shirt
bosom and wrist bands for Grandfather and make the sleeves. I have
commenced but, Oh my! it is an undertaking. I have to pull the threads
out and then take up two threads and leave three. It is very particular
work and Anna says the stitches must not be visible to the naked eye. I
have to fell the sleeves with the tiniest seams and stroke all the
gathers and put a stitch on each gather. Minnie Bellows is the best one
in school with her needle and is a dabster at patching. She cut a piece
right out of her new calico dress and matched a new piece in and none of
us could tell where it was. I am sure it would not be safe for me to try
that. Grandmother let me ask three of the girls to dinner Saturday,
Abbie Clark, Mary Wheeler and Mary Field. We had a big roast turkey and
everything else to match. Good enough for Queen Victoria. That reminds
me of a conundrum we had in _The Snow Bird:_ What does Queen Victoria
take her pills in? In cider. (Inside her.)
_March_ 7.--The reports were read at school to-day and mine was,
Attendance 10, Deportment 8, Scholarship 7 1/2, and Anna's 10, 10 and 7.
I think they got it turned around, for Anna has not behaved anything
uncommon lately.
_March_ 10.--My teacher Miss Sprague kept me after school to-night for
whispering, and after all the others were gone she came to my seat and
put her arm around me and kissed me and said she loved me very much and
hoped I would not whisper in school any more. This made me feel very
sorry and I told her I would try my best, but it seemed as though it
whispered itself sometimes. I think she is just as nice as she can be
and I shall tell the other girls so. Her home is in Glens Falls.
Anna jumped the rope two hundred times to-day without stopping, and I
told her that I read of a girl who did that and then fell right down
stone dead. I don't believe Anna will do it again. If she does I shall
tell Grandmother.
_April_ 5.--I walked down town with Grandfather this morning and it is
such a beautiful day I felt glad that I was alive. The air was full of
tiny little flies, buzzing around and going in circles and semicircles
as though they were practising calisthenics or dancing a quadrille. I
think they were glad they were alive, too. I stepped on a big bug
crawling on the walk and Grandfather said I ought to have brushed it
aside instead of killing it. I asked him why and he said, "Shakespeare
says, 'The beetle that we tread upon feels a pang as great as when a
giant dies.'"
A man came to our door the other day and asked if "Deacon" Beals was at
home. I asked Grandmother afterwards if Grandfather was a Deacon and she
said no and never had been, that people gave him the name when he was a
young man because he was so staid and sober in his appearance. Some one
told me once that I would not know my Grandfather if I should meet him
outside the Corporation. I asked why and he said because he was so
genial and told such good stories. I told him that was just the way he
always is at home. I do not know any one who appreciates real wit more
than he does. He is quite strong in his likes and dislikes, however. I
have heard him say,
"I do not like you, Dr. Fell,
The reason why, I cannot tell;
But this one thing I know full well,
I do not like you, Dr. Fell."
Bessie Seymour wore a beautiful gold chain to school this morning and I
told Grandmother that I wanted one just like it. She said that outward
adornments were not of as much value as inward graces and the ornament
of a meek and quiet spirit, in the sight of the Lord, was of great
price. I know it is very becoming to Grandmother and she wears it all
the time but I wish I had a gold chain just the same.
Aunt Ann received a letter to-day from Lucilla, who is at Miss Porter's
school at Farmington, Connecticut. She feels as if she were a Christian
and that she has experienced religion.
Grandfather noticed how bright and smart Bentley Murray was, on the
street, and what a business way he had, so he applied for a place for
him as page in the Legislature at Albany and got it. He is always
noticing young people and says, "As the twig is bent, the tree is
inclined." He says we may be teachers yet if we are studious now. Anna
says, "Excuse me, please."
Grandmother knows the Bible from Genesis to Revelation excepting the
"begats" and the hard names, but Anna told her a new verse this morning,
"At Parbar westward, four at the causeway and two at Parbar."
Grandmother put her spectacles up on her forehead and just looked at
Anna as though she had been talking in Chinese. She finally said, "Anna,
I do not think that is in the Bible." She said, "Yes, it is; I found it
in 1 Chron. 26: 18." Grandmother found it and then she said Anna had
better spend her time looking up more helpful texts. Anna then asked her
if she knew who was the shortest man mentioned in the Bible and
Grandmother said "Zaccheus." Anna said that she just read in the
newspaper, that one said "Nehimiah was" and another said "Bildad the
Shuhite" and another said "Tohi." Grandmother said it was very wicked to
pervert the Scripture so, and she did not approve of it at all. I don't
think Anna will give Grandmother any more Bible conundrums.
_April_ 12.--We went down town this morning and bought us some shaker
bonnets to wear to school. They cost $1 apiece and we got some green
silk for capes to put on them. We fixed them ourselves and wore them to
school and some of the girls liked them and some did not, but it makes
no difference to me what they like, for I shall wear mine till it is
worn out. Grandmother says that if we try to please everybody we please
nobody. The girls are all having mystic books at school now and they are
very interesting to have. They are blank books and we ask the girls and
boys to write in them and then they fold the page twice over and seal it
with wafers or wax and then write on it what day it is to be opened.
Some of them say, "Not to be opened for a year," and that is a long time
to wait. If we cannot wait we can open them and seal them up again. I
think Anna did look to see what Eugene Stone wrote in hers, for it does
not look as smooth as it did at first. We have autograph albums too and
Horace Finley gave us lots of small photographs. We paste them in the
books and then ask the people to write their names. We have got Miss
Upham's picture and Dr. and Mrs. Daggett, General Granger's and Hon.
Francis Granger's and Mrs. Adele Granger Thayer and Friend Burling, Dr.
Jewett, Dr. Cheney, Deacon Andrews and Dr. Carr, and Johnnie Thompson's,
Mr. Noah T. Clarke, Mr. E. M. Morse, Mrs. George Willson, Theodore
Barnum, Jim Paton's and Will Schley, Merritt Wilcox, Tom Raines, Ed.
Williams, Gus Coleman's, W. P. Fisk and lots of the girls' pictures
besides. Eugene Stone and Tom Eddy had their ambrotypes taken together,
in a handsome case, and gave it to Anna. We are going to keep them
always.
_April_.--The Siamese twins are in town and a lot of the girls went to
see them in Bemis Hall this afternoon. It costs 10 cents. Grandmother
let us go. Their names are Eng and Chang and they are not very handsome.
They are two men joined together. I hope they like each other but I
don't envy them any way. If one wanted to go somewhere and the other one
didn't I don't see how they would manage it. One would have to give up,
that's certain. Perhaps they are both Christians.
_April_ 30.--Rev. Henry M. Field, editor of the _New York Evangelist,_
and his little French wife are here visiting. She is a wonderful woman.
She has written a book and paints beautiful pictures and was teacher of
art in Cooper Institute, New York. He is Grandmother's nephew and he
brought her a picture of himself and his five brothers, taken for
Grandmother, because she is the only aunt they have in the world. The
rest are all dead. The men in the picture are Jonathan and Matthew and
David Dudley and Stephen J. and Cyrus W. and Henry M. They are all very
nice looking and Grandmother thinks a great deal of the picture.
_May_ 15.--Miss Anna Gaylord is one of my teachers at the seminary and
when I told her that I wrote a journal every day she wanted me to bring
her my last book and let her read it. I did so and she said she enjoyed
it very much and she hoped I would keep them for they would be
interesting for me to read when I am old. I think I shall do so. She has
a very particular friend, Rev. Mr. Beaumont, who is one of the teachers
at the Academy. I think they are going to be married some day. I guess I
will show her this page of my journal, too. Grandmother let me make a
pie in a saucer to-day and it was very good.
_May_.--We were invited to Bessie Seymour's party last night and
Grandmother said we could go. The girls all told us at school that they
were going to wear low neck and short sleeves. We have caps on the
sleeves of our best dresses and we tried to get the sleeves out, so we
could go bare arms, but we couldn't get them out. We had a very nice
time, though, at the party. Some of the Academy boys were there and they
asked us to dance but of course we couldn't do that. We promenaded
around the rooms and went out to supper with them. Eugene Stone and Tom
Eddy asked to go home with us but Grandmother sent our two girls for us,
Bridget Flynn and Hannah White, so they couldn't. We were quite
disappointed, but perhaps she won't send for us next time.
[Illustration: Tom Eddy and Eugene Stone, "Uncle David Dudley Field"]