CLEVELAND ABBE. xiii 



The extent of his charities can doubtless never be fully known 

 but the cases of record testify to his disposition to single out deserv- 

 ing and meritorious instances where the bestowal of aid, necessarily 

 limited by his own simple resources, would bear the best fruit. 

 Each of these doubtless meant a definite personal sacrifice, signif- 

 icant of the sincerity and unselfishness of his motives. 



The long years of his official life under the government inevitably 

 brought a number of vicissitudes which Abbe's boundless devotion 

 to his beloved science enabled him to bear with patience and tolera- 

 tion ; whereas they brought a deeper sadness and resentment to the 

 declining years of his devoted wife. In the early part of 1900 her 

 health began visibly to fail, ending in death in Canton, N. Y., July 

 24, 1908. 



At this date his sons were each married and already established 

 in a home of his own. The father doubtless perceived and felt 

 the loneliness of his situation, in spite of the solicitude and hospital- 

 ity extended by his sons. Consequently, although then at the age 

 of seventy, it was not surprising to those acquainted with the 

 affectionate and sympathetic spirit of Abbe to learn of his second 

 marriage in Philadelphia, Pa., April 12, 1909, to Miss Margaret 

 Augusta Percival of Basseterre, St. Kitts, British West Indies. In 

 renewed health, after a severe illness following his constant and 

 patient attention to the needs of his first wife in her last illness, 

 Abbe entered upon his new happiness with much of the spirit and 

 romance of youth but, yet, with the sincerity and seriousness of 

 maturity. Each found in the other the great need of all humanity, 

 sacred love, completely satisfied, moulding their separate lives into 

 unselfish reciprocal devotion. There was thus fittingly provided in 

 the tender care and solicitude of this capable wife of a stronger 

 vigor of life than he, both the aft'ection and the attention that were 

 needful when his own bodily strength, which he had so lavishly be- 

 stowed in the interests of science and humanity, failed longer to 

 fully sustain him. 



The horrors of the European war were a great mental distress 

 to Professor Abbe in his last days and added to the pains his bodily 

 illness brought upon him. His mind, however, was singularly clear 



