society. She has a second time entered the matrimonial state-the wife of Colonel Williams.

Mrs. Myra Clark Gaines has been at different times prominent in society at Washington; but her life has been filled with too much of struggle and suffering to leave her much leisure. Her name is familiar to every one, and her romantic history is generally known. A full memoir of her life, occupying a large volume, is, we understand, in preparation. The history of her claim to her father's estates,-prosecuted under various discouragements for thirty-five years,—and of the judicial proceedings in regard to the claim, will hereafter be considered one of the most extraordinary, as well as the most interesting, in the annals of American jurisprudence.

Miss Lucy Crittenden, the sister of the great senator, possessed superior intellect, and had extensive social influence. Her husband, Judge Thornton, was member of Congress from Alabama, and the first land commissioner in California. Her residence is in San Francisco.

XVII.

AMONG the daughters of our country who have been distinguished in social life, a few have aimed at something above the mere triumphs of fashion, devoting their energies to make their homes a paradise and diffuse a happy influence on all around them. Of these, each has created for herself a distinct sphere of usefulness and benevolence. Mrs. White's peculiar charitable enterprise deserves special mention. Her method of realizing large benefits was almost a novelty in America, when her splendid success called forth on every side a spirit of generous emulation. Yet much as she has achieved for charity in these public undertakings, as well as in the thousand unknown instances in which she has been Mercy's angel to the poor and afflicted, what she has accomplished beneath her own roof, in the education of her children and the management of her household, ought to be still more widely known. At the risk of invading the privacy of domestic life while describing the woman of the world, we may hold up to admiration the wife, the mother, and the friend, justified by the object in view, to show the beneficent and extending effects of home education.

The grandfather of Rhoda Elizabeth Waterinan was

one of three brothers, two of whom served as officers in the Revolutionary army. General Waterman, her father, one of the earliest settlers of Binghamton, New York, was a prominent lawyer, and, as such, was among the legislators who revised the laws and statutes of New York, in 1829. Her mother was the daughter of General Whitney, a wealthy landowner, distinguished as well for his sterling principles and high character as for his patriotism, hospitality, and public spirit.

Many venerable and respected persons of the olden time speak with heartfelt praise of General Waterman and his admirable wife, and describe their spacious and comfortable mansion at Binghamton as the abode of elegance and hospitality. Mrs. Waterman elevated all who came habitually within her reach, while training her children with jealous care for lives of exemplary usefulness. Hers was a rare and exceptional excellence. Brought up by such a mother, and gifted by nature with uncommon qualities of mind and heart, and graces of person, Rhoda Waterman, at a very early age, was admired alike by the old and the young.

The following letter from Daniel S. Dickinson speaks of one accomplishment of her girlhood, which has been a great charm in her home and in company:

"MY DEAR MRS. WHITE:

"BINGHAMTON, December 1, 1859.

"Twenty-eight years since, this month, I came to reside in Binghamton, and the first Sabbath of my residence was deeply impressed with the funeral service and ceremonies of the Episcopal Church upon the death of Mrs. James McKinny.

"My attention was turned to the gallery by the rich, plaintive tones of a sweet female voice, rising above the choir and the organ in the Dying Christian ''O Grave, where is thy victory? O Death, where is thy sting?'

"I inquired, and learned that the singer was a daughter of General Waterman, yet in her early and happy girlhood.

"Since then, I have passed from early manhood to age; have reared children and committed them to the dust; have stood amongst the honored of the land, and mingled in all the conflicts of life but the notes of that heavenly song yet dwell upon my ear.

"That you may live long to cheer and bless those who love you, and to adorn society; and when it shall please a beneficent Providence to call you home, that you may experience the triumplis you sang so beautifully, is the prayer of one who is

"Sincerely yours,

"DANIEL S. DICKINSON."

At the date of the above letter, the lady to whom it was written had become the mother of children who adorned her home with the virtues and accomplishments that reward the fondest parent's most devoted love and unremitting labor. Mr. Dickinson, while visiting that home, could hear in the exquisite voices of the oldest daughters the echo of that which had "dwelt upon his ear" so many years.

At a very early age Miss Waterman became the wife of James W. White, a young lawyer of Irish birth and parentage, born in the County Limerick, and a nephew of Gerald Griffin, author of "The Collegians." He was of an excellent family, noted for the virtues as well as the talents of its members, and must have been distinguished by uncommon qualities to have won a prize coveted by many suitors of wealth and distinction.

The young couple took up their residence in the city of New York in 1834; and from that time Mrs. White made her home so bright and so attractive, that it has ever been the favorite resort of the refined and the youthful, as well as of the afflicted. We owe it to the mothers and daughters of our land to reveal some of the hidden causes which have made "Castle Comfort" (so the family and their friends delight to call her house) an enchanted abode, as well to its inmates as to all who are brought, even for the space of an hour, within Mrs. White's charmed circle. The good we mean to do by this revelation must plead our excuse for it with this estimable lady. From her own accomplished mother she early learned the science, not only of the most admirable domestic economy, but of increasing, day after day, the happiness of her husband, her children, and her servants. Possessing the unbounded confidence of her husband, and devoted heart and mind to the purpose of affording him, beneath his own roof, all elevating pleasures, and that repose of every faculty needed by a lawyer after his hard mental toil, his wife never, from her bridal day, relaxed her efforts to render his evenings delightful, and with the ever varying devices of womanly affection to keep his soul young and his heart fresh and full of its early happiness. Mrs. White, from the first, considered it her most sacred duty to God and to her husband to deepen, purify, and increase, in her own heart and in his, the conjugal affection which bound them together, and which she prized as Heaven's