| Show Helen Hunt Jackson WHAT is more elevating refining and educating than to read and study the lives of truly noble men and women Of the truly noble women of America Helen Hunt Jackson stands among the firs first fint t. t Thousands were saddened when Aug 12 1885 the news spread throughout the nation that she was dead How with the simple initials HH H H. H H. H II h had ad she won this place in the hearts of the people Was it because she was a poet Oh no Many per persons persons persons per per- sons of genius have few friends It was because an earnest life was back of her gifted writings A great book needs a great man or woman behind it to make it a perfect work Mrs J Jackson's Jacksons Jacksons Jackson's Jack Jack- ackson's ack- ack sons son's literary work will be abiding but buther buther buther her life with its dark shadow and bright sunlight its deep affections and sympathy with the oppressed will furnish furnish furnish furn furn- ish a rich setting for the gems of thought which she gave to the world Born in the cultured town of Amherst Mass October 18 1831 she inherited from her mother a sunny buoyant nature nature nature na na- ture and from her father Nathan W. W Fiske a strong and vigorous mind Helen was an ardent willful child She and her younger sister Annie were allowed one April day by their mother to go into the woods ju just t before school hours to gather checkerberries Helen finding the woods very plea pleasant ant determined determined deter deter- mined ined to spend the day in them even though sure she would receive a whipping whipping whipping whip whip- ping on her return home The sister could not be coaxed to do wrong but a neighbors neighbor's child with the promise o 0 seeing live snails with horns was in induced induced induced in- in to accompany the truant They wandered from one forest to another till hunger compelled them to seek food at a strangers stranger's home The kind farmer and his wife were going to toa toa toa a funeral and were about to lock their house but they took pity on the little ones and gave them s some me bread and milk II There said the woman II now now you just make yourselves comfortable and ea eat t all you can and when you youre you're re done you push the bowls in among them lilac-bushes lilac and get em Urged on by Helen she and her companion companion companion com com- panion wandered into the village to ascertain ascertain ascertain as as- certain where the funeral was to be held It was in the meeting-house meeting and thither they went and seated themselves on the bier outside the door Becoming tired of this they trudged on One of them lost her shoe in the mud and stopping at a house to dry their stockings they were captured and taken home When they reached home Helen walked in as rosy and smiling as possible saying II Oh Oh mother Ive I've had a perfectly splendid time For saying this she was shut ut up in inthe inthe inthe the garret and on arriving there she immediately began to bore holes in the plastering She remained in the garret one week and it is questionable whether she was more penitent at the end of the week than she was at the beginning When Helen was twelve both father and mother died leaving her to the care of a grandfather She was soon placed in the school of the Rev J. J S. S C. C Abbott of New York and there some of her happiest days were passed She grew to womanhood frank merry impulsive brilliant in conversation and fond of society At twenty-one twenty she was ma married ried to a ayoung ayoung ayoung young army officer Captain afterward Major Edward B. B Hunt They lived m much ch of their time at West Point and FI h. h Newport and the young wife wife- moved in ina a fashionable social circle and won van won hosts of admiring friends Their first baby died when he was eleven months old but another beautiful beautiful beautiful ful ful boy came to take his place named after two friends Warren Horsford but familiarly called II Rennie He was an uncommonly bright child and Mrs Hunt was passionately fond and proud of him Life seemed full of pleasures She dressed handsomely and no wish of her heart seemed ungratified Suddenly like a from a alear clear lear sky the happy life was shattered Major Hunt was killed October 2nd 1863 while experimenting in Brooklyn with a submarine gun of his own tion The young widow still had her year old boy and to him she clung more tenderly than ever but in less than two years that dread destroyer diphtheria took him from her side She brooded over her sorrow for some sometime sometime sometime time and spent most of her time in her own room refusing to see her nearest friends Three months after Rennie's death her first poem appeared The kind letters she received in consequence were the first gleam of sunshine in the darkened life If she were doing even a little good she could live and be strong And then absorbing absorbing absorbing ab ab- began at thirty-four thirty painstaking literary work She worked rapidly writing usually lly with witha a pencil lead-pencil on large sheets of yellow paper but she pruned carefully During the next four years she wrote many poems However during this time her health failed and she went to Germany and Italy and remained away one year After returning home she traveled in Colorado which experience aided her in writing and she wrote much while away Everywhere she made lasting friends Her German landlady in Munich thought her the kindest person in the world The news news- boy the little urchin on the street with witha a a basket full of wares the guides over the mountain passes all remembered her cheery voice and helpful words In Colorado in 1876 eleven years after the death of Major Hunt she married married married mar mar- ried Mr William Sharpless Sharples Jackson a Quaker and a cultured banker Her home at Colorado Springs was made madean an ideal one and everywhere the house was decorated with the beauties of na na- ture Here two novels came from her herpen herpen herpen pen II Mercy Philbrick's Choice and II Hetty's Strange History J The time had now come for her to do doher doher doher her la last t and perhaps her best work She could not write without a definite purpose and now the purpose that settled settled set set- tIed down upon her heart was to help the defrauded Indians She wrote her II Century of Dishonor a book showing h how w we have despoiled the Indians and broken our treaties with them At her own expense she sent en t a copy to each member of Congress So much was the government impressed by her earnestness and good that she was appointed a special commissioner with her friend Abbott Kinney to exam examine examine ex ex- am amine amine me and report on the conditions of the Mission Indians in California I She went and brought cheer and hope ope to the red men and their wi wives ves and they called her The liThe Queen By this time Mrs Jackson had become become become be be- come more than poet and novelist even the leader of an oppressed people During During During Dur Dur- ing the time she was a missionary among the Indians she wrote II Ramona and into this she put her heart and and soul Mrs Jackson did not live to see her work for the Indians completed but she lived to see it it well in progress In June 1884 falling on the staircase of her Colorado home she severely fractured fractured fractured frac frac- her leg and was confined to the house for s several veral months Then she was ta taken ken to Los Angeles Cal for the winter The broken limb mended rap rap- idly but malarial fever set in and she was carried t to San Francisco She had no fear of death She said It is only just passing from one country country country coun coun- try to another My only regret regret regret re re- gret is that I have not accomplished more work especially that it was so late in the day when I began to work in real earnest There isn't so much difference I fancy between this life and the next as we me think not so much bar bar- rier I I shall look in upon you in the new rooms some day but you will not see me Four days before her death she wrote her last touching poem Father I scarcely dare to pray So clear I see now it is done dore That I have wasted half my day And left my work but just begun So clear I se see that things I thought Were right or harmless were a sin So clear I see that I have sought t Unconscious selfish aim to win vin So clear I see that I have hurt The souls I might have helped to save I That I have slothful been inert Deaf to the calls Thy leaders gave In outskirts of Thy kingdoms vast Father the humblest spot give me Let me the lowliest task Thou hast Let me repentant work for thee 1 That evening August 8 after saying farewell she placed her hand in her husbands husband's and went to sleep After four days mostly unconscious ones she wakened in eternity All honor to a woman who with a happy home happy home was willing to leave it to tomake tomake tomake make other homes happy who having suffered tried with a sympathetic heart to forget herself and keep others from suffering who being famous gladly took time to help unknown authors to win fame as she did do and who having having having hav hav- ing means preferred a life of labor to toa a life of ease Emma Young |
