CHAPTER XVI
During vacation months, Marie teaches German—Becomes working guest in family of Rev. A. D. Mayo—Meets many noted men and women—Her mother dies on the voyage to New York and is buried at sea—Marie returns to New York, visits Dr. Blackwell, and finds the Infirmary is still closed—She goes to Boston to visit Dr. Hunt—Meets the Grimké sisters—Learns of the New England Female Medical College—Meets William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Parker, Wendell Phillips, and other noted people—Returns to Cleveland and becomes the guest of Mrs. C. Vaughan for her closing term at college—Meets Lyceum speakers, professors, political and social leaders, and literary men and women from various parts of the country. (Twenty-six years of age: 1855.)
Within a few days, there were found some pupils to whom I might teach German. There also came a proposition from Mrs. Mayo who was expecting her first baby within a very short time. The proposition was that I should become a general member of the family, attending to her needs as well as aiding in the housekeeping, etc., till the arrival of her mother later in the spring.
In April, I removed my possessions into that hospitable house which offered its little to me who had less. Both Mr. and Mrs. Mayo were really nervous invalids, and the troubles and trials of their position as anti-slavery advocates and religious reformers bore heavily upon them and kept their purse lean. However, I had no personal needs further than my board, as my clothing was still good in spite of my two years in America.
I found many dear and valued friends during my residence in Cleveland, but none to whom I am bound in lasting gratitude as to Mr. Mayo, who offered me his assistance when he learned that I was in need, my extra expenses having swallowed up the little money that I had brought with me, so that I had not even enough to return to my sisters in New York. As the minister of a small congregation advocating Liberal ideas, he had a hard position in Cleveland, both socially and pecuniarily, yet he offered to share his little with me. I was forced to accept it, and I am now, and have always been, glad that I did so.
No one that has not had the experience can appreciate the happiness that comes with the feeling that a rich man has not cast a fragment of his superfluity towards you (and here let me remark that it is next to impossible to find wealth and generosity go together in friendship), but that the help comes from one who must work for it as well as the recipient. It proves the existence of the mutual appreciation that is known by the name of “friendship.” The apple given by a friend is worth ten times more than a whole orchard bestowed in such a way as to make you feel that the gift is but the superfluity of the donor.
Now I was in my element: superintending a very inferior servant girl; providing wholesome simple meals for the invalids; going three mornings a week to an apothecary shop where a friendly man permitted me to assist him in his work, thus acquiring a knowledge of drugs and their preparation; going two mornings a week to my preceptor’s office to recite in the usual manner; giving German lessons two afternoons a week; spending one evening a week at meetings in houses of different parishioners for discussions on theological subjects, especially Unitarian and Universalist themes; assisting Mr. Mayo on Sundays at the Sunday school, especially in organizing the same and in substituting for absent teachers; and, after the arrival of the baby girl, taking exclusive charge of the delicate little being, trying to bring it up by hand.
During this summer, I had the pleasure of getting acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. Leander Lippincott (Grace Greenwood, a sister of Mrs. Mayo). And later I met a great many renowned ministers and lecturers from the East who either called when passing through Cleveland or exchanged pulpits with Mr. Mayo, being our guests in either case. All these gentlemen were highly interesting, especially when talking on politics, the Free Soil movement and anti-slavery. My knowledge of American civilization was in this way greatly increased and my powers of observation and meditation received full satisfaction.
This quiet yet useful existence was broken by a letter from my father, bringing the news of his having sent my mother and the youngest two sisters to New York for a visit to us, with the intention of following them himself as soon as he could obtain a year’s furlough with full salary. All this was meant to see for himself whether I could not be brought back to my senses and persuaded to return to the proper sphere of woman.
Perhaps it may be of interest here to state that my only brother had arrived in New York just before I left for Cleveland and had found a good position as mechanical engineer. And a half-brother of my mother, whom my father had adopted, had arrived after my departure. My father wanted to rescue these two from the fate of being soldiers in Germany, so he expatriated them, sending them to America. But in their new country, the former became a captain in the militia, while later, during the war of the rebellion, the latter became a captain in the regular United States Army.