The Family 9 



had been spent in the country, for her father — my grand- 

 father — had moved up from Charleston, South Carohna, 

 to New York a short time before the Civil War, taking 

 with him his slaves. He was left impoverished and died 

 shortly after the war was over. He was a Southern sym- 

 pathizer, and suffered deeply as a result of his convictions 

 during the last few years of his life in New York. My 

 grandmother Sprague moved with her young brood to 

 Geneva, Switzerland, where one could live at small cost. 

 After three years, when the financial outlook was a bit 

 brighter, they sailed back to America and entered New 

 York Harbor to see a column of smoke rising from the 

 lower end of Manhattan Island. It was the storage ware- 

 house containing all their earthly belongings — everything 

 they owned was lost. 



Mother was a tall and stately person to the very end of 

 her life. She was tall for a woman, for she was slightly 

 over six feet. I have no doubt that in her youth she was 

 very handsome. 



Mother had a deeply religious character, Calvinistic and 

 fundamentaHst, but utterly sincere in her belief. I never 

 knew a person who tried harder to be just and fair. She 

 leaned over backward in this respect. Brought up as she 

 was, it was a little difficult to convince her that there was 

 no essential difficulty in accepting such modern scientific 

 behefs as the theory of evolution without jeopardy to the 

 faith which she treasured so sincerely. 



She and my father's mother did not particularly care for 

 each other and I think the reason really was that the male 

 members of Grandmother's family on both sides, the War- 

 rens and the Sayreses, were officers in the Union Army, 



