Bells At Evening And Other Verses: With Biographical Sketch (1899)

BELLS AT EVENING AND OTHER VERSES BY FRANCES J. CROSBY WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY ROBERT LOWRY, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. FRANCES JANE CROSBY, the daughter of John and Mercy Crosby, was born in South East, Putnam County, New York, March 24, 1820. Her home was in a little valley, through which ran a branch of the Croton River. The murmur of the flowing water was the music of her earliest childhood. Her fancy reveled in the silvery tones that rose incessantly from the humble brook. They spoke to her in a language which she could understand, and she learned to translate them into her own vernacular. The dancing measures of the little stream still linger sweetly in her memory. When she was only six weeks old an affection of the eyes demanded medical treatment. Either from lack of accurate diagnosis, or from the opera- tion of causes beyond the reach of ordinary skill, the remedies applied failed to accomplish the de- sired end, and her sense of sight entirely disappeared. Happily for her peace of mind, this loss of vision came upon her at so early an age that she was relieved of those violent and painful con- trasts which would have been her lot if this misfortune had overtaken her in later years. Indeed so utterly foreign to her is our world of sight, she does not feel the loss of what practically never was in her possession. A calamity which would be regarded by us as beyond all compensation she looks upon as one of the commonplaces of her normal condition. It is pathetic to hear her gentle but earnest protest when tender sympathies are expended upon her by honestly commiserating friends but we cannot but admire the beautiful contentment with which she accepts her place in life, and evenexpresses a preference for what to us would be only an unmitigated misfortune. Her childhood was a period of unalloyed delight. Her happy temperament threw sunshine over all her surroundings. She discovered in time that therewas a sight-world in which she had no part, but no knowledge of that deprivation could affect the elasticity of her spirits. f As if to give notice to all persons that they need not waste any con- dolements on her, she wrote, at the age of eight years, the following statement of the situation as she viewed it i O what a happy soul am I Although I cannot see, I am resolved that in this world Contented I will be How many blessings I enjoy That other people dont To weep and sigh because Im blind, I cannot, and I wont. The poetry in this childish effusion may not be of the highest order, but the it philosophy contains is worthy of general adoption. When she was about nine years old she was taken by her parents to Ridgefield, Conn., where the family remained four years. After the death of her father her opportunities for mental improvement were in a degree interrupted...