On September 12, a notice of the death of William Allen Butler is pasted in the Diary. Below it she writes:--[306]
South and North
Will hurry forth
To hasten his election.1904.
A pleasant man. I met him at the Hazeltines' in Rome in 1898 and 1899. His poem [Nothing to wear] was claimed by one or two people. I met his father [a Cabinet Minister] at a dinner at the Bancrofts' in New York, at which ex-President Van Buren was also present, and W. M. Thackeray, who said to me across the table that Browning's How they brought the good news was a “good jingle.”On the 29th she spoke at a meeting of the New England Woman's Club in memory of Dr. Zakrzewska, and records her final words:--
I pray God earnestly that we women may never go back from the ground which has been gained for us by our noble pioneers and leaders. I pray that these bright stars of merit, set in our human firmament, may shine upon us and lead us to better and better love and service for God and man.
In the afternoon to hear reports of delegates to Biennial at Los Angeles. These were very interesting, but the activity shown made me feel my age, and its one great infirmity, loss of power of locomotion. I felt somehow the truth of the line which Mr. Robert C. Winthrop once quoted to me:--Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage.