an attic fairy.—our child artist grinds her own paints.—scholarships and athletics at harvard university.—our youngest wins an “h.”—american girls’ club in paris.—caroline’s pictures exhibited in the new salon.
our children received their early education at home and at the house of our good friend, mrs. sykes. when the boys were well started in their lessons we sent them to the neighboring public school. here their proficiency in reading was resented by their contemporaries. an aristocracy of learning is quite as offensive to boy nature as any other form of superiority. the school was coeducational, but in spite of this some of the boys were pretty rough. it was a good thing for our sons, however, to learn young to take their own part and to rub elbows with all sorts and conditions of children. the public-school system of america is an indispensable feature of our democracy.
all our sons were prepared for college at mr. leal’s excellent private school in plainfield. a schoolmate declared that when mr. leal called sam up to recite he would open the greek book, lay it affectionately upon the boy’s knee, pat it, and tell the latter to begin. thereupon sam proceeded to reel off page after page of the text, as if he had been a species of classic hand-organ. he was now too big, however, to have his head punched for his proficiency. i was glad to help my children with their home studies, thus reviving my acquaintance with messrs. virgil, c?sar and company. but assisting them with their arithmetic and algebra was very hard work. to present a mathematical idea so that a child will clearly understand it is not easy. perhaps that is the reason why teachers so often leave this task to the luckless parents. this is all wrong.
my second son, harry, was a natural leader and had his little coterie of friends and followers. when these were promoted to a higher room in the public school it was proposed to promote their teacher, also; she declined the honor!
the boy had a natural wit which he occasionally used to torment his instructors at mr. leal’s school. harry had various clashes with the younger teachers, who were all men. they did not make sufficient allowance for the high spirits and the desire for independence of the growing boy. “poppy leal,” the principal, as the boys affectionately called him, was wiser. he spoke of them all as men, thus winning their hearts. but one day even mr. leal grew out of patience with harry. sending for the boy’s parents, he told us that there seemed to be a difference of opinion between harry and himself as to who should run the school. he, however, had always done so in the past and did not propose to abdicate now. history repeats itself, and this same harry was called upon, not long ago, to curb the same spirit in his eldest daughter, little julia ward howe hall. the teacher unknowingly used the same words that had been applied to harry in his youth!
he was a daring boy, yet possessed of a certain caution. we had bought for his elder brother one of those immense bicycles which enjoyed a brief day of popularity. it proved too big for the older boy, but master harry managed to ride it, though his legs were so short that he could only reach the pedals as they came up. on this he descended such a dangerous incline that the boys kindly gathered at the foot of the hill to see him fall off. “come see hally riding to hell!” one boy called to the others.
our only daughter studied at home and at private schools, going to paris for her education in painting.
she was less than five years old, when she made her own brushes by taking stiff chicken feathers and shaving them off till only a small tuft was left at the end. from pieces of brick and other materials found about the place, she ground her own colors. when we found the child making pictures with these primitive paints, we at once supplied her with colors. in addition to the power of invention, perhaps because of it, caroline possessed the happy faculty of making the most of small things, enjoying whatever little pleasures fell to her lot. thus, wishing very much to have a room entirely to herself, she asked for one in the attic. when a mouse visited her bower in the evening, instead of screaming she played softly on the harmonica, in the hope that the music would lead him to return to his home. we called her the attic fairy.
in 1889, our eldest son, samuel prescott hall, entered harvard university, having passed his examinations with honors. i went up to cambridge with the trembling freshman, who had just passed his seventeenth birthday. a certain indifference, not to say coldness, on the part of the authorities soon showed me that the event of sam’s entrance into academic fields did not move them so deeply as it did me. the bursar i found especially unsympathetic. my son had not drawn a room in the college buildings, and that was an end of it. mr. —— had no suggestions to offer. i was assured later that this gentleman was a very kind man. he certainly concealed the fact very successfully. i had dealings with him from time to time during the period of fourteen years while my sons were at cambridge. but i do not remember his ever displaying one sign of human weakness.
my brother had suggested our trying to procure for sam the position of president’s freshman. the duties of this functionary consisted in running errands for the head of the university, for which he was paid a small honorarium. when i inquired about the president’s freshman, i was met by a pitying smile. the young man in charge had evidently never heard of such a person.
when we looked about for rooms, dreadful tales of young collegians who had been found dead from opium-smoking greeted our affrighted ears. fortunately, we found a pleasant lodgment at the house of an old acquaintance.
this attitude of serene indifference toward the class of young men most in need of advice and help has now passed away. the erection of a stately row of buildings, intended especially for the accommodation of freshmen, shows that alma mater has waked up to a fact which was clear long ago to the ordinary mothers of men. the entering class, the new blood, is the hope of the future. as they are the youngest students and are totally inexperienced in the ways of the university, many of them coming from remote parts of the country, they should be made welcome.
our sons thoroughly enjoyed their college life. they were much interested in athletics and also liked to have a good time. it was fully borne in upon them, however, that study must be the principal aim of their college course. we could not afford to send them to harvard simply for amusement. sam, being a student by nature, was always on the rank list, taking special second-year honors, also graduating “cum laude” with honors in greek and latin. in charles eliot norton’s famous class, “fine arts four,” he was greatly interested. it was said that the very large membership of professor norton’s classes was due to their being “snap” courses. some of the boys, having reported themselves present, would depart by the fire-escape; others would read newspapers, to the vexation of professor norton.
no. 241 beacon street was a second home to my mother’s five grandsons, all of whom graduated from harvard. of sam she was especially fond. his tastes, like hers, were those of a scholar, and there was a close bond of intellectual sympathy between her and her eldest grandson.
football gave him so much pleasure that he continued to play with amateur associations after leaving college. those were the days of the deadly flying tackle. one morning a short, powerful-looking young man called at our house for sam’s football clothes. this same young man had accidentally killed another in a recent game. my feelings, on thus learning that my son was to play with him, can be imagined. sam passed through these dreadful combats without lasting injury. he did, to be sure, bruise one of his legs so that it was black and blue from hip to ankle and the doctor looked serious. fortunately youth and health pulled him through so that no amputation was necessary.
harry took his athletics less violently. through persistent exercise he became one of the strongest ten men in college. his mother felt much anxiety lest he should thus become muscle-bound, but my fears would appear to have been groundless. tennis proved to be his forte, as various trophies testify.
in 1893 we moved into our new house in plainfield. as often happens, however, our children began to leave home soon after we had established ourselves permanently, as we hoped. caroline was suddenly invited to go to paris with mrs. george richmond fearing, there to study painting and french.
mrs. fearing took great pleasure in giving young girls the advantages of study in the french capital. she employed actresses from the théatre fran?ais and the odéon—the government theaters—to give lessons in diction. caroline’s decidedly american accent changed, in the seven years of her foreign residence, into something closely resembling the french of the natives.
“baby hall,” as she was affectionately called, was the youngest girl at the délécluse studio. thaulow, the great norwegian artist, criticized the work of the art students in the bois de boulogne. he was a very large man and wore a bottle-green coat. he viewed with alarm the idea of seating himself on one of the tiny folding camp-chairs of their kit, so they procured one warranted to support many kilos.
in due course of time caroline’s pictures were exhibited and “hung on the line” at the new salon in paris. she was also invited to exhibit her landscapes in the french provinces, receiving letters beginning “cher ma?tre.”
for some years she lived at the american girls’ club, no. 4 rue de chevreuse, a pleasant establishment where the charges were very moderate, mrs. whitelaw reid contributing to its support.
when our youngest son, john howe hall, went to harvard, it was necessary for him to assist materially in his own support. as he was the least robust of the three brothers, this was not so easy. he possessed, however, grit, executive ability, and a capacity for hard work. he won several scholarships, and also tutored in the courses he had himself thoroughly mastered.
to “coach” for examinations boys who have neglected their studies involves severe and exhausting mental labor for teacher and pupil alike. jack did the best he could for his pupils, who usually passed. although of slighter build than any of the other four grandsons, he determined to achieve the coveted “h.” he accordingly entered the track team and became a long-distance runner. the flutterings of the mother heart were now great. i was glad to have the boy distinguish himself, but two miles seemed a long-distance for one so slender to run. the perusal of a story by wilkie collins, representing the hero, a college runner, as a very brutal man, did not reassure me. at first the boy was indignant at his parent’s timidity and, as he thought, lack of sympathy. after i had attended, in company with his brothers, several races, where we showed great enthusiasm and cheered loudly, he understood my feelings better.
it was indeed a proud moment at franklin field, philadelphia, when sam called out to me, “here comes your youngest, at the head of the bunch.” he was so handsome and so graceful, in that wonderful stride of the trained runner, that mother was made very happy. he gained, not long afterward, the coveted “h”—the only one of the grandsons who did so.
