Reflections of Emma

By Robert H. Tate

Reflections of Emma is a book about a lifetime of thoughts of a woman known only to us as Emma. While on one of their many journeys to the northeast part of the country, Robert (Bob) and Becky found her Bible, an 1864 King James version, in an antique store in West Lebanon, New Hampshire. It had over a hundred clippings from newspapers and magazines on a wide variety of topics relevant to her time. These clippings held special meaning to Emma and gave Bob insight into her world and thoughts. After purchasing the Bible, Bob and his wife visited the northeast multiple times, spending hundreds of hours searching through local courthouses and libraries. They searched both local and national magazines and newspapers, attempting to document exactly where each article in Emma’s Bible originated. In the end, there was only one clipping that could not be documented. While on these trips, they also went through courthouse birth and death records and visited countless cemeteries all over the northeast, attempting to discern Emma’s last name; this also was to no avail. We may never know who she was, but she left us with a lasting view of mid- to late-nineteenth-century America.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781644685549

Book preview

Young Folks

Samuel P. Bailey was ninety-nine years old when he wrote Young Folks in 1879. The 1880 Federal Census listed him as one hundred years old. His reflection on young folks is somewhat different than the poem Grandmothers. The children in the latter poem remained young. Mr. Bailey is giving good advice to children for growing up. When youths grow older, they encounter things they think they already know. The story goes, When I was seventeen, my father didn’t know anything. Now that I am forty, he sure has learned a lot.

Here are Mr. Bailey’s words of advice:

Seek good counsel. Solomon’s son did not. He received his counsel from the young men around him, thus causing the kingdom of Israel to split.

Give God the praise.

Do honest work.

Don’t waste time.

Depend on Christ for grace and truth.

Read some good books when you are young.

Avoid vain, bad company.

Do what is right and be happy despite trials.

Keep your conscience clear; but the conscience has to be trained in what is good and right.

Mr. Bailey does believe in a spiritual life after earthly life has ended and urged all to seek it.

This is a Written for this Paper poem and may not be found anywhere else. For someone his age, the thoughts of this poem are very precise and clear.

Young Folks.

Written for this Paper.

An Acrostic.

Consider when, you older grow,

And learn some things, you ought to know;

Receive good counsel, from the wise,

Live seeking light, and not disguise,

In riper years, give God your praise,

Endure to walk in wisdom’s ways.

Let not your time be spent in vain,

Ere you are old seek honest gain,

On Christ depend for grace and truth,

Read some good books while in your youth,

Avoid all vain, bad company.

Do what is right and happy be,

Expect to meet some trials here;

May you still keep your conscience clear;

Incline to hope to reign above,

No doubt you’ll meet many you love,

Go to the Ark, like Noah’s dove.

Your friend,

Samuel P. Bailey.

Born in South Weare, N.H.,

February 27, 1780.

Aged 99 yrs, 4 mos. and 28 days, July 25th, 1879.

This is an acrostic, a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable, or word of each line, paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message.

Emma seemed to like this advice and saved it with the clippings in her Bible. I wonder if she detected the hidden message? The acrostic spells: carlie leora deming.

Samuel Philbrick Bailey (1780–1880), from New Hampshire, began writing acrostics in his older years and wrote over one thousand of them.²⁸ He sent them to friends and newspapers. He was a deacon in the Christian church. Deacon Bailey was a member of the Free and Accepted Masons and also helped create the Tubbs Union Academy, a private preparatory school that existed for over fifty years. Young Folks was one of his last published works. Mr. Bailey died July 12, 1880.

A Mother’s Advice

From the tone of the poem a mother’s advice, a mother is advising all her children in the proper way to live spiritually. In her thinking, living just the physical life is not sufficient.

A Mother’s Advice

By Helen A. Browne

Trust, my child, no Syren’s whisper,

Weave no web in Fancy’s loom,

Build no castles for the future,

For the golden days to come.

Garner up no earthly treasure,

Bear no idol in the heart,

Learn to banish all allurements,

Early choose the better part.

Life has more or less besetments,

More or less of grief and woe,

Shadows always check our pathway,

Sunbeams only come and go.

Earthly pleasures are but fleeting;

Fairy visions fade away,

Brightest blossoms soonest wither,

Summers do not always stay.

Learn to trust in something higher,

Have some noble aim in view,

Seek the pearl of purest water—

Live alone for what is true.

Cast thy bread upon the waters,

Out upon the waves alone,

You will find it drifted to thee

After many days have flown.

Love thy neighbor as thy brother,

Bear his burden with thine own,

Always watchful of his footsteps—

Strive to seek his good, alone.

Ever hoping and enduring,

Ever pray’rful on the way,

May you reach the golden entrance

Opening on Eternal Day.

Then you’ll hear the angels’ summons

Ringing out in joyous chords,

"Welcome! To thy Heavenly mansion,

Come ye, blessed of the Lord’s."

Negative physical, positive spiritual, the mother advises to store up treasure in heaven, not on earth. The writer is Helen A. Browne; no other record is found of her or the poem.

Syrens (sirens) in Greek mythology lured sailors and ships by word and music to wreck on the stony coast of their island. The poet speaks of their whisper that should not be trusted. Although most of the allusions in this verse are from the Bible, sirens are not found in the Scriptures. Neither are fairies, but unicorns, dragons and sea monsters are mentioned in some translations.²⁹

The writer uses words and phrases reflecting stories recognized by those who know the Bible. The better part, is from the story of Jesus and his friends Martha and Mary. Martha is busy with kitchen chores, but Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn more of the spiritual things. She had chosen the better part. Shadows and sunshine are used in the second verse, much like the Jennie Carter Sunshine and Shadow poem (see page 47). However, Browne’s verse does not convey the same message as Carter’s. Here, it is the earthly pleasures and treasures that fade away, not the joys and hopes of youth.

Phrases like purest pearl, casting bread upon the water, and love thy neighbor are all found in the Bible. The poet’s advice is to seek and search for that which is spiritual, everlasting, and eternal, things which would never fade or pass away.

Emma would probably have drawn the same conclusion from her Bible and would believe this mother’s advice was beneficial to everyone who looked for something better in a future life.

Grandmothers

Without grandmothers, there would be no goodies because they are the source of apples, pennies, and cakes. Written from a young boy’s perspective, the poem suggests grandmothers are the best of all relatives, perhaps even better than mothers and fathers. Grandmothers aren’t worried about school, noise, and boys being bad once in a while. Parents worry about those things. The teller of the story is not only speaking for himself but for all boys. He does realize grandmothers are older and sometimes seem to be preoccupied with faraway looks and daydreaming. They rock by the fire in the evening and sing hymns to themselves about heaven, and when a boy thinks on this, a tear stings his eye. Grandmothers do die, and he is much saddened by this thought. Of all the good things she gives, he knows her prayers for him are what he needs most.

The Fireside

Grandmothers

Grandmothers are very nice folks;

They beat all the aunts in creation.

They let a chap do what he likes

And don’t worry about education.

I am sure I can’t see it at all,

What a poor fellow ever could do

For apples and pennies and cakes,

Without a grandmother or two.

And if he is bad now and then,

And makes a great racketing noise,

They only look over their specs,

And say, "Ah, those boys will be boys.

"Life is only short at the best;

Let the children be happy to-day."

Then they look for awhile [sic] at the sky,

And the hills that are far, far away.

Quite often, as twilight comes on,

Grandmothers sing hymns very low,

To themselves, as they rock by the fire,

About heaven, and when they shall go.

And then a boy stopping to think

Will find a hot tear in his eye,

To know what will come at the last—

For grandmothers all have to die.

I wish they could stay here and pray,

For a boy need their prayers every night—

Some boys more than others, I s’pose—

Such as I need a wonderful sight.

—Southern Churchman

The Southern Churchman was a newspaper (1835–1952). No author is given, but words like chap and specs suggest an English writer.

Grandmothers are very nice folks. Maybe Emma had that same feeling too.

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

the writer of yesterday, to-day and to-morrow, a lady who is not identified, paints a picture of her life with husband and children in a glimpse at the past, present, and future.

Yesterday, To-Day, And To-Morrow

But yesterday I walked a bride,

With Robert Goodhue at my side.

To-day rare buds and blossoms pave

One spot of earth; ’tis Robin’s grave.

But yesterday I crooned to Bess

A cradle song—you’d never guess!

To-day—(how tall the child has grown)!

She rocks a cradle of her own.

I yesterday, dear Robin, too,

Kiss’d the red lips of Baby Sue.

To-day she carols ’mid the throng

Who sang Judea’s blessed song.

But yesterday, my Robin’s arm

Kept Baby Rob from hurt or harm.

To-day—Rob, Jr., LL.D.

Upon a lettered sign you’ll see.

But yesterday knelt by my chair

Three boys and said Our Father, there.

To-day—Frank, Will and blue-eyed Ben,

Come in to me tall, bearded men!

To-morrow—in the vast To Be,

A glad to-morrow waits for me,

When through the streets where angels shine

I walk with Robert’s hand in mine.

—Boston Transcript

Because the poem is from the Boston Transcript, the writer may have been from Boston. This seems to be a real life story of Mrs. Goodhue and a tribute to her family. Starting as a young bride, she names her husband, Robert Goodhue, in the first verse and then pictures him in his grave in the second. One by one, she then continues with the children (Baby Sue is dead), their past and present and accomplishments. The three sons were taught to pray when young and now are grown, bearded men. Rob Jr. is a lawyer. She is proud of all her children and what they have accomplished. Looking to the future, she seems anxious to find the tomorrow when she once again can walk hand in hand with Robert. Together they would walk through the streets where angels shine. The writer believed in an afterlife where once again she would be with her loved ones.

Emma saved this verse for a reason. Maybe she, too, shared some of the same memories of her family as this writer. Memories make the past what it will always be, and memories are only made by living in the present and future.

My Mother’s Picture

Mrs. Ellen Marie Huntington Gates (1835–1920)³⁰ is the author of My Mother’s Picture. She encounters a ghost from the past each time she sees her mother’s picture hanging on the wall. Like many family pictures of that day, hypnotic eyes from the image looked into hers wherever she ventured in the room. Her intentions for entering the room are not to look at the picture, but she always seems to find herself drawn to it and, unconsciously, ends up standing before her mother’s face. She can almost hear her mother’s voice and wants to answer.