25 AUGUST 1917, Page 9

A VOLUME has lately conic into our hands, published in New

York end London by Messrs. Putnam. It is called Recollections of a Happy Life, by Elizabeth Christopher.; Hobson. edited by Miss Louisa M.Schuyler (6s. nell—a fitting tribute indeed from one so competent and trusted to thc fine and genennis life recorded. It rings like a " Last Post " sounded by old friendship to a well-loved memory.

Mrs. Hobson seems all her days long to have been dispensing

friendship and help. She lived to see many of her beneficent plans established. She was the eldest of many charming daughters of Elijah Huntington Kimball. She tells us that she herself was not beautiful, as were her sisters, but elle must have had that gift of attraction which belongs. very specially to American women. The'' happy life" could has,e.hanlly been that of an English- woman in its change of front amid varied-scenes, in its many-sided grasp. and sympathies, The difference is very noticed& between the two nationalities of America and England—the matisfaction of the former. looking back, compared to the-self-questionings of the latter, looking-forward. Cams, n'oppve: pm," said the wise and witty French lady whose temperament was more akin to the Americana than to our own.

When this particular American lady, who lived to ha over eighty

years, was dying, she asked that, instead of the noted hymns. a Te Deum should be erring at her funeral. As theeditorsays, "truly these memories give 118 to-day a bit of sunshine thrown across the background of dark and ominous cloud under which we arc living."

The story of Mrs. Hobeon's life begins with that of her New

England ancestors, the Puritan stock to which the Kimbells belong. (Quaint relics are still preserved in the family, comprising an altar- cloth stolen from a church by Captain Kidd, also his pitcher with silver bands.) As a child, Elizabeth used to spend 1110111118 in her grandfather's farmhouse on the banks of the Connecticut River among the great barns and outhouses for the cattle and the numerotie horses. Almost everything which we now buy at. the grocer's rrlil the Stores was made on the estate, she says. Notwithstanding hard and unceasing work, the grandparents lived to be ninety. lit mar, a to her peaceful scenes of New England life comes- the slory of th girl's merriage at nineteen and her home in South America: her wedding trip across the Isthmus of Panama before canals or railw,sys existed and her romantic installation. in Peru in an ancient Spattieh

• palace, " none of the vast rooms being less than thirty feel loins" she saya, with beautiful carved ceilings and balconies. She describes her- tranquil existence, the unending ho.spirdity of her . home, dinner laid daily for eight, the six guests never failing, and besides all this its romantic arrangements foul organization; " perfect saddle,horses ready to carry the whole young party far into the mountains, where they would dance till they returned by moonlight or in the early dawn."

Tide mediaeval existence came to en end when, after over ten years among Spaniards and legends and old palaces,. Mrs. Hobson and her husband cams back to live in Now York. where, owing to. her sisters' marriages and family connexion., more modern associations awaited them—Bishops and statesmen, authors and artists, philanthropists and men of science, some of the noblest in many countries, made them welcome. She adds else- where that, having no children of her own to absorb her, she had more leisure to devote herself to thew she loved and who-loved her.

The story of Mrs. Hobson's entry into the State Charities Aid Association is really dramatic in its completeness anti efficiencv. It was at the house of Mi9.1Schuyler and her sister that she attended her first meeting. Miss Schuyler is the daughter of a very re nutrkable :roan, and, holding his fine traditions, she has given her life-work to America and to her friends, and this steeling was.callod by her to suggest a remedy for certain cruel deficiencies in New York hospitals which required inuuediate righting. It is too long to quote the :admirable description of Mrs. Hobson's first visit to. the Bellevue Hospital ; of her gallant and euccessful raid, her complete 1111C0,14, with the help of her wise and resourceful leader, Mias Schuyler; owl of their training-school for nurses. All this. is modestly and.yet vividly recounted, and will not be forgotten by those who lead.

For a time after her Iturthand's death Mrs, Holston want abreast, slaying. at ConeLantinaple with. her sister and her brother.iu.law

in Italy with Marion Crawford, and in Palestine also, and rurally settling down in Washington amongst her friends ; a kind and hospitable light shining, as ever, from her hearth, where people of every sort and condition loved to warm them- selves. Her accounts of the White House and of the good company she met there are also no less vividly told than the story of her life among the diplomats. Amongst other places, she describes the old Chateau d'Aunay, near Nevcrs, where to many past centuries were embalmed—the portraits, the ancient furniture, the traditions, the records, all untouched. Count d'Aunay, the owner of a amen otanoir, as he called it, had married Mrs. Hobson's charming niece, Airs Berdan, and the American ladies seem to have appreciated to the full the stores spread out before them. Take, for example, ma old lease signed by Louis XIV., from which falls a love-letter from Louise de Is Valliere, appointing a meeting with the King so sonic neighbouring bridge. An unexpected secretary and librarian appears in the person of Silvio Tellico, who had been taken in after his imprisonment and received by a great-aunt of the Count's. Can one not imagine the American explorers dipping to their delight in all these ever-living remembrances of things past The strangest and least familiar chapter in this most varied history is that of Mrs. Hobson's journey when she was nearly seventy, in company with her old friend Mrs. Hopkins, to visit the Southern schools, and study their schemes for the practical education of the coloured population. The efforts which the liberated slaves were making to help themselves, and the reluctant acquiescence of the white population who had not yet outgrown the tradition of slavery, are all described. The impres- sions of the lovely, natural possibilities of the South, and of the unhelping, indifferent human sympathy, are very striking. There was one specially well-conducted school, managed by an enter- prising and spirited mulatto, Mr. Hawker. He took the two ladies into his own home, the hotel having been burnt down. The sketch is extraordinarily lifelike—it was written fifteen years Sr more ago. One would be grateful to know what conditions

n ow exist. Only the day before her death the valiant lady was writing to express her satisfaction that, chiefly owing to her own efforts and representations, the State had recognized the importance of these schools. If her life made for her own happiness, one realizes that it was the happiness of others which she lived for, and