

I* ARIES, UNITED STATES. 



641 



rnent, but devoted several thousand dollars 

 \vhirti sho had earned by teaching, to help tor- 

 ward tlio publication of his drawings and in- 

 sure liis success. Twice she wont with her 

 husband upon his voyages to England, and 

 traveled with him while he obtained sub- 

 scribers to his great work. For years she 

 bore the pain of long separation patiently, 

 ^stimulating his enthusiasm by hor letters, while 

 she provided t'nr their children by her labors, 

 and rejoiced in the triumph which she had 

 aided him to achieve without a thought of the 

 struggles and privations which it had cost her. 

 And when the keen eye that had caught so 

 quickly each shade of the plumage of birds 

 grew dim, and the dexterous fingers could no 

 r ply the pencil, when "silent, patient 

 sorrow tilled a broken heart," and paralysis 

 had weakened body and mind, then for years, 

 in tho beautiful home which their mutual ef- 

 forts had provided, his wife read to him and 

 walked with him, she nursed and tended him 

 with untiring faithfulness and Christian sereni- 

 ty till the last moment of recognition and de- 

 parture came together. After the death of 

 her husband, Madame Audubon did not sink 

 into inactivity and despondency. She inter- 

 ested herself in the children for whose train- 

 ing she had done so much, and gave to chil- 

 dren's children the benefit of a regular and 

 systematic education. Her days were filled 

 with active efforts for the good of others, and 

 no rust dimmed the mind to which intellectual 

 activity had become a constant delight. She 

 loved to read, to study, and to teach ; she 

 knew how to gain the attention of the young, 

 and to fix knowledge in their minds. "If I 

 can hold the mind of a child to a subject for 

 five minutes, he will never forget what I teach 

 him," she once remarked ; and acting upon 

 this principle she was as successful at three- 

 score and ten years in imparting knowledge as 

 she had been in early life when she taught in 

 Louisiana. Madame Audubon interested her- 

 self in all that pertained to the welfare of the 

 neighborhood where she lived. Although it 

 was not without a pang that she saw her sylvan 

 home invaded by the growth of the city, and 

 all old associations broken up, she did not treat 

 those who came to live near her as strangers. 

 She had a large and generous heart, and with 

 her husband always exercised a liberal hospi- 

 tality, and a hearty kindness toward all. The 

 poor had reason to bless her bounty, and the 

 rich were her debtors for courtesies and atten- 

 tions which they could not claim, but which 

 she freely gave. Madame Audubon had none 

 of that petty pride which sometimes stains a 

 great name, and which so often shows the low 

 birth of ostentations millionaires. In pros- 

 perity and adversity she was equally sincere 

 and humble, a friend to all worthy people ; a 

 woman respected for her strong character and 

 loved for her genuine and warm heart. The 

 death of her husband was at length followed by 

 the death of both of her sons, who had been the 



VOL. XIV. il A 



collaborators and traveling companions of tin ir 

 father, the fortune which had rc-wank-d their 

 mutual ctlbrts was reduced by unfortunn 1 

 vestments, and many trials and burdens pressed 

 upon her declining years; but si. 

 trials without shrinking and bore her I. 

 patiently. Cln-i-n-d by the Morii.-ty ill t 

 telli|_'i-ntand the good, with undimini-bed fond- 

 ness for intellectual pursuits, and still Hiirround- 

 ed by descendants who honored and loved her, 

 she occupied her time in preparing a biography 

 of her husband, which is at once a noble trib- 

 ute to his memory and a monument of her own 

 literary ability and industry. It is a most fas- 

 cinating volume, and one which no one who 

 reads it can fail to prize and enjoy. The last 

 years of Audubon's life had been saddened by 

 the loss of sight, and partial blindness now cut 

 her off from reading. But as she had been 

 eyes to the blind, so now a granddaughter with 

 filial affection supplied her loss of sight, and 

 read to her for hours from books of travel and 

 valuable literature, with daily portions of the 

 word of God. It had always been her wish to 

 die without long illness, and the wish was 

 granted. Taken ill Monday June 16th, she was 

 at rest on Thursday. So gently did she fall 

 asleep that her granddaughter hardly knew 

 that she was dying till she ceased to breathe. 



June 20. CHENEY, CHARLES, one of the 

 brothers of the great American silk manufact- 

 uring firm of Cheney Brothers; died at his 

 home in South Manchester, Conn., aged 70 

 years. He was born in what is now Sonth 

 Manchester, Conn., in 1804, and was the third 

 of the eight sons of Mr. George Cheney. Five 

 of these eight brothers still survive, all re- 

 markable for artistic taste and love of the 

 beautiful, as well as for their concord and har- 

 mony in all their enterprises and in their re- 

 lations to each other and to their workmen. 

 Charles Cheney went to Tolland as clerk in a 

 store when ho was about fourteen, and before 

 he was of age migrated to Providence and en- 

 gaged in mercantile business on his own ac- 

 count, having Solomon Pitkin for a partner. 

 In 1836 or 1837 he removed to Ohio, and estab- 

 lished himself as a farmer at Mount Healthy, 

 near Cincinnati, where he remained about 

 eleven years, and during that period became 

 strongly interested in the antislavery move- 

 ment. About the time of his removal to Ohio, 

 Mr. Ward Cheney and some of the other broth- 

 ers had started a small silk-factory at their old 

 home in South Manchester. They had many 

 obstacles to contend with, and the factory was 

 suspended after three or four years, but was 

 revived again in 1841, and with somewhat 

 better success, and in 1847 Charles Cheney 

 joined his brothers in the undertaking. Dur- 

 ing the next twenty-seven years, till his death, 

 the brothers worked with the utmost harmony 

 in building up, by slow but sure steps, the great 

 industry, which, with its mills at Sonth Man- 

 chester and Hartford, is now one of the most 

 conspicuous of American manufactures. The 



