GARY 



1211 



CASABA 



fins were often covered with carved ivory 

 plates, and among the gifts received by Charle- 

 magne were two richly-carved doors. Ivory 

 adapts itself readily to the carver's art because 

 of its elasticity and evenness of texture, and 

 at the present time it is used quite generally for 

 toilet articles, ornaments of various kinds, 

 chessmen, knife handles and other objects. 

 j CARY, ka'ri, ALICE (1820-1871) and PHOEBE 

 (1824-1871), two American poets, sisters and 

 life-long companions, whose graceful and pic- 

 turesque verses were greatly admired in their 

 own day, and are still read and enjoyed. They 

 were born and brought up on a farm in the 

 valley of the Miami, in Ohio. Their only edu- 

 cation was that afforded by the little country 

 school in the district, and for years they de- 

 pended for reading matter on their home 

 library a shelf of about half a dozen books. 

 Though their educational advantages were so 

 limited, the sisters constantly studied and 

 wrote, holding fast to the idea that some day 

 others in the great world outside would read 

 their poems. 



When Phoebe was fourteen and Alice 

 eighteen they began to see their names in 

 print, and in the course of the next few years 

 they became widely known as writers of charm- 

 ing little poems that found circulation through 

 various papers and magazines. Whittier wrote 

 them a letter of encouragement and apprecia- 

 tion, and when in 1849 Horace Greeley visited 

 them in their home they determined to try 

 their fortunes in New York. In 1851 they 

 settled in the city, and there the sisters lived 

 and wrote together for the next twenty years, 

 mingling with a brilliant group that included 

 Horace Greeley, Bayard Taylor, Richard and 

 Elizabeth Stoddard, Justin McCarthy and 

 Thomas Bailey Aldrich. In this circle they 

 themselves were held in great esteem. 



There is great similarity in their choice of 

 subjects, though they show differences in poetic 

 temperament. The poetry of each may be 

 divided into certain groups, as ballads and 

 narrative poems, religious poems and hymns, 

 poems of nature and of sentiment, and poems 

 for children. Alice was more delicately imag- 

 inative than her sister, but less dramatic, and 

 Phoebe possessed more wit. In their nature 

 poems, Alice saw the soul in nature, and loved 

 to interpret its moods, while Phoebe associated 

 nature with human experiences. They loved 

 children equally well, but Alice showed in her 

 poems more of the motherly affection for 

 them; Phoebe regarded them as comrades. 



One of Alice's finest achievements is her 

 Pictures of Memory, beginning 



Among the beautiful pictures 

 That hang on Memory's wall 

 Is one of a dim old forest, 

 That seemeth best of all. 



Edgar Allan Poe said of this poem that in 

 rhythm it was one of the most perfect lyrics 

 in the English language. Of all of Phoebe 

 Gary's poems none made a wider appeal than 

 the hymn Nearer Home, which begins 



One sweetly solemn thought 

 Comes to me o'er and o'er 



I am nearer home to-day 



Than I ever have been before ; 



Nearer my Father's house, 

 Where the many mansions be ; 



Nearer the great white throne. 



Nearer the crystal sea. B.M.W. 



CARYATIDES, kariat'ideez, or CARYAT- 

 IDS, the name applied in Greek architecture 

 to the figures of women dressed in long robes 

 and standing upright in graceful positions, 

 when used as columns to support a roof. The 



CARYATIDES 

 In the porch of the Erechtheum. 



most celebrated of these figures appear on the 

 southwest porch of the Erechtheum, a temple 

 on the Acropolis of Athens. The corresponding 

 male figures are called Atlantes. The name is 

 the plural of the Greek Caryatis, meaning a 

 woman oj Caryae (in Laconia). In this city 

 was a temple to the goddess Artemis, and during 

 her annual festivals there virgins were accus- 

 tomed to dance in her honor. Some authori- 

 ties say that these dancing maidens suggested 

 to architects the idea of using their images as 

 columns, thus explaining the origin of the term 

 Caryatides. 



CASABA, kahsah'ba, or CASABA MELON, 

 one of the largest varieties of muskmelons, not 

 extensively known in America until the present 



