How sad the breath of autumn sighs,
With mourning and decay;
The woods are clothed in varying dyes,
Of funeral array.
Where beauty bloomed of late around,
On mountain top and vale,
Now wither'd foliage strews the ground,
And tells a piteous tale.
And summer birds are on the wing,
Bound for a warmer sky,
They greeted us in early spring--
They bid us now good bye.
So pass away our early years,
Youth sinks into decay,
And age, like autumn soon appears,
And quick we pass away.
MRS. IDA McCORMICK.
Mrs. Ida McCormick was born at Cameron Park, the family
homestead, one mile south of the pleasant little village of Zion,
Cecil county, Maryland, December 31, 1850. She is the daughter
of William Cameron (of Robert,) and a cousin of Annie M. Biles;
her mother Anna M. Oldham, being a sister of Catherine R. Oldham,
the mother of Annie M. Darlington, whose biography may
be found in this volume. She was educated at the Church-side
Seminary, at Zion, and at an early age engaged in teaching in the
public schools of her native county. She commenced to write
poetry when quite young, and for some years occasionally contributed
to the columns of the _Cecil Whig_.
On the 7th of August, 1873, she married James McCormick, of
Woodlawn, and for about a year after her marriage resided with
her husband near that place. In 1876 the family removed to
Philadelphia where they have since resided, except short intervals
when traveling.