Mary Elizabeth Wilson Sherwood

“ Many suppers and dinners and theatre parties brought me to see the great man rather intimately, and I do not remember a more easy-going and genial person. His tall, commanding form and gray head, his nez retroussé and his eye-glasses, his firm tread and charming laugh, got to be as well known in Kew York as they were in London. ”

“ The lover, an ugly, big-headed young Frenchman, against whose presence she shuddered so that she seemed to shake the stage, fully carried out the idea that the power of the goddess must have been supreme, for no woman in her senses could have fallen in love with him. Rachel never seemed to walk, and in Phèdre she gave the idea that a serpent was hidden under her long robe, on whose undulations she was moved along irrespective of her own volition. ”

“ It is brought in its long white robe; he takes it tenderly and passes it from one to another; they all smile, kiss the new-comer, and show most enviable ivory teeth, thus saluting age and youth with fine poetic instincts. Then they bring forward their oldest man, Manuel, the African prince, who performs the same Oriental homage and utters more rude original rhymes, to which the whole family listen politely, and they all disappear slowly; the festival of a Santa Cruz Christmas is at an end. ”

“ Anthony Trollope said of Thackeray, "One loves him as one loves a woman, tenderly and with thoughtfulness, thinking of him when away from him as a source of joy which cannot be analyzed, but is full of comfort." ”

“ Bulasminda was on a height far above the city of Ballin, and commanded the view and the sea-breeze so coveted in these islands; here were great breezy salons and broad verandas, and cozy little charming boudoirs furnished with bright chintz. From the telescopes along the veranda one could but fear that Governor Van Scholten had sat looking out to sea, for the best part of his occupancy, to sight the vessel which should bear him away. ”

“ Then men and women fell back on their own minds for that entertainment which they now seek in fast horses, yachts, great and constant change, journeys to Europe and to Newport. Books took the place of dress and display. When a young lady was introduced into society one bouquet did duty for the seventy-five which now are considered quite too few. There was a sober elegance among even the first in position and the richest in pocket. There was no talk about money; it has become a subject of conversation since the war. ”

“ Thomas and Porto Rico — very dimly the last, but dreamy and delicious. The plantations looked, each with its negro huts about it, like little towns; and the long, smooth, white roads, planted with palm-trees like long zones of umbrellas, had a pretty effect. But palms are not half so beautiful as elms. In a landscape they are ineffective.
Mr. Randolph lived like an English nobleman, but he was no more cheerful than the rest of them. He knew how to give a dinner. London could not have given us a better one. People who live in quiet, remote places are apt to give good dinners. ”

“ No one knew anything about Time. He had never crossed over from St. Thomas, the old thief Time! Having no seasons, it was always summer — "sacred, high, eternal noon." These West-Indians never said "last autumn," "last winter." They had none of these reminders; so the growth of children was their only calendar. Their newspapers were a fortnight old, and nobody read them but the planters, and they not often. A newspaper is of no interest unless you read one every day. One must keep hold of Time. ”

“ The price had gone up every hour since Captain Folsom made the first treaty. Should she allow her son's great fortune to escape her? A shrewd old Danish lawyer, Judge Feddersen, said no. So poor Captain Folsom kept paying and paying, and other heirs sprang up. My husband had been twice to Santa Cruz before on this business; I only came in at the finish. Finally, one payment remained, and he said that I might see that; so he drove me up a hill to a humble shanty where sat a drunken Danish soldier on a three-legged stool awaiting his share, and it was paid to him — $20,000 in gold. ”

“ Most of the houses at which we visited were monuments of past prosperity, where poverty was bravely and silently borne. They were, many of them, full of learning and refinement, full of dramatic secrets. ”

“ They were principally from the Danish islands, St. Thomas and Santa Cruz, and were never tired of telling how the Danish governor, Van Scholten, had issued an edict freeing the slaves, and had then sailed off to Denmark in time to escape the riot, the bloodshed, and the confusion of his act. "In fact," said my infuriated informant, "you will see plenty of ruin. England has neglected and ruined Jamaica, revolution and bad government have ruined Hayti, emancipation and Denmark have ruined Santa Cruz, and Spain has ruined Cuba," and so on, and so on. ”

“ We were to go to the hotel and spend a week in St. Thomas before we sailed over to Santa Cruz.
A famously good French table we found, and the heterogeneous company of all the islands joined in this hotel, which from its piazza commanded a splendid view. The thermometer stood at 88°, although it was December. Near us at dinner sat Father Ambrosius, a most celebrated Catholic priest, who had been on the Merlin. Father Ambrosius had been sufficiently human to talk to the young bride of subjects in which she then took a decided interest, and perhaps does yet. ”

“ Early Simplicity in Dress and Manners — My Wedding-dress and my Marriage — A Novel Wedding Trip — St Thomas and Santa Cruz — A Celebrated Lawsuit and a Unique Christmas Festival — Havana — Rachel, the Famous French Actress, visited the United States in 1854 — Fanny Kemble — Thackeray's Visit to America — The Purchase and Restoration of Mount Vernon
Inthe early forties and fifties almost everybody "had about enough to live on," and young ladies dressed well on a hundred dollars a year. ”

“ Abbot sat down by me and put her sweet old hand in mine, telling me how I reminded her of her lost daughter. "There is her picture by Sully, of Philadelphia," said she; "it might be a picture of you."
She asked me to come next week. King's Day, and see the people dance. "Our people [meaning the negroes] come in from the plantations and sing their old African melodies, and play the drum and dance; it is a wild scene, one that strangers never forget. We have an African prince named Manuel, who was brought here when he was a boy. He was very unruly, but kindness has tamed him." ”

“ Randolph, an Englishman, who asked us to dine with him at Mon Bijou, his pretty place seven miles away. My husband went off with him to call on the governor and some of the other dignitaries, and on old Judge Feddersen, who held the fort for Anna Maria Sparks in the Captain Folsom case.
I was very glad to retreat to the mosquito-net and the one linen sheet and to fan myself into a siesta. I rose at seven reluctantly to dress, and at eight o'clock we drove to Mrs. Abbot's, where we found a large party. Mrs. Abbot was a lady of high degree; her manners had the majesty of a past age. ”

“ They are the oft-recurring excitement of an otherwise unemotional, dull existence. They linger, each of these dinners, in our palimpsest memories, each recorded clearly, so that it does not blot out the other. Mr. Randolph had travelled extensively. He was a "London swell" condemned to an existence in this remote corner. But then he had a French cook from the "Trois Frères Provençaux," a keenly developed sense of gastronomy, and plenty of money. Given these three things, "avec cette sauce," and one could give a dinner in the desert. ”

“ The daughters of the richest man in Boston were dressed with scrupulous plainness, and the wife and mother owned one brocade, which did service for several years. Display was considered vulgar. Now, alas! only Queen Victoria dares to go shabby; fine clothes have become a necessity to the lesser lights. The greater proportion of people were happier, because there was not such emulation, such vulgar striving, nor such soaring, foolish ambitions. ”