fo tv Comfort the Jlj Sorrowing, * j ~ to Relieve the f d Light to the Blind: Sphere. letter ^ 1 ae recently published memoir of .fcinily Sanford Billings, written by her husband, Judge Edward C. Billings, of the United States District Court of this State, is one of tlie moat -touching and beautiful tributes ever paid to the dead by the living, and -will be read with much interest iu NJw Orleans, where Mrs. Billings was so general a favorite. The book is a twofold revelation. To those vrho knew, but not intimately, the subject of the sketch, it is a revela- tion of a depth and fascination of char- acter under a quiet demeanor and of talent which amounts to genius ; and a revelation of surpassing tenderness and devotion, and a, poetic power of ideality both of thought and of feeling possessed by the brilliant jurist, the author of the sketch, which is a pleas- ant surprise even to his nearest and most appreciative friends. With a loving-heartedness that seeks to bind together the memories of the two women who were his best beloved his mother and his wife, his first love and his last the author dedicates his book: "TO MY SWEET MOTHER, HKPSEY DICK- INSON BILLINGS, with tne hope that even by a tie so frail and perishable as words of mine may be linked the memory of her who first revealed to Jiie the sacredness in woman's .5 01 iier who in all tho relations of life so con- spicuously and endearingly illustrated that sanctity. That these two beings, who had, as typical mother and wife, successively stood by my side, like an- gels, inciting to all that was good and resisting temptation to all that was bad, and who first met as seraphs in heaven, might each occupy her own fit- tme relations to the worth herein re- corded, the one having prepared me by the hints and suggestions froru the depths of her own serene and loving nature to regard as possible, and appre- sicite when found, tbo more broadly unfolded and more brilliantly beauti- fied excellencies of the other. So that she who did but foreshadow andi>r< uro may be associated with her who at- tained to and who embodied in her shining life euch unwoiidliuess, such affinity with goodness, such steadfast- ness for the right and such purposes born of heaven." Did ever the dedication of a book pay higher tribute to woman under the sacred names of mother and wife than this ? It should endear the chivalrous and manly author to the heart of every mother and wife in the land, and win for him the gratitude, sympathy and appreciation of eve;-y cultured woman who turns the pages of the book. It is not only a eulogy of her whom it eoir.iueuiorates, but of all womankind a crown of glory sat upon her daily life. The preface, of which we give a part, is as touching and beautiful as the dedication. Listen: "This sketch was undertaken for several reasons. " Upon the death of the fondly loved there abides for the survivor an every- where diffused, ever present sense of loss of tne oppression of pain and soli- tude, a void coextensive with mental associations; almost an absence ol what made existence personal. " Slowly, sometimes not till life on earth becomes nearly all a retrospect- its chastening all wrought into charac- termonies to the mourner from out the ashes' of the grave the promised 'beauty' comes that ideal presence of our cherished dead which to the spirit- ual senses brings something of the look and fellowship, the high and brave en- couragement, the li i.;o ueukoiiiiig uli 01 their living selves. " ' The prospect and horizon gone, every landscape is dreary, every shore barren. Our being, which yesterday was 1'ull of vigor and crowned with ver- dure, is to-day withered as if smitten by the killing frost. 80 that the utter- ly bereaved seems to be separated, far away, from his own life. The connec- tion between the soul and interest in external objects is paralyzed. " As ' deep has thus called unto deep/ ' his waves and billows going over me,' ftvery phase and incident of the life herein outiiaed has won me to its con- templation, as in some sense to a com- munion with that vanished life." Is not that beautiful? Ah, something even more than beautiful; it is like a strain of sweet and commanding music ail the way through. Farther on, in the heart of the book, the author, speaking of hia marriage, says: " We were married in New Haven, in Centre Church, where for the period of fifty-eight years her parents had wor- hiped, the calm air and sacred associ- ations of which she had enjoyed through childhood and youth, and almost on the very spot where, twenty years before, I had stood in delivering my philosoph- ical oration at commencement. "O ye joys which beam upon and beckon to us from out the glad future which lies before youth, and which oft- times fade from us, obscured by the sorrows and narrowing struggles of later years, how did ye then come thronging back to me with your old- time, glowing aspect, and with all the rapture and twice the tenderness of your early promise 1" And in another place he says: " The radiant and pure spirit of beauty that walks hand in hand with true marriage, comes it like the wind which bloweth where it listeth, with- out visible origin ? So that it is found, or alas, missed without cause? O no; it emanates from what are among the most real, as well as the best of human attributes. It has its origin and sus- tenance in mutual, implicit trust, 'heart answering to heart as face to face in water ;' iu aims and aspirations formed and kept so receptive, so impressible, that similitude, almost identity results; one string responding to another with music when 10 ia not smitten because the key or p; same and because there are boruo to it by the pulses of the air its owu cognate vibrations, awakening its note and compel that law of harmony which slumbers in all created things." It almost takes one's breath away to e with such words as 4 distinguised jurist who is deal only with he.." ug out the hand for a 1 branch aud to find it d with the beauty and Like entering with rambling into the presence of : nd godlike majesty ex- iiilled to numbness, and ly feel the glowing warmth of lire of the poet's heart. Ah, Judge Billings, Nature intended you for a poet before Law confined you in a suit of mail and drew over it a judge' ; wig and gown ! That the whole book is a labor of is manifest in every een- ; but besides this Judge Bil- gs to his work a clear .1 acuteness of anal- ulness of description that ct clearly before us and as he wishes us to know the wise, loving, sympathetic, gentle. aud inflexibly just woman who had, as he beautifully quotes, " the sweetest soul that ever looked with human eyes." It is, of course, impossible to here give more than the briefest synopsis of J,he little book. The story of Mrs. Bil- na"'lrfa ami character and her final sufferings and lieroio death are told ! \vith an almost dramatic directness. Mrs. Billings was a native of New the City of Elms, and a daugh- w ; of one of the early merchant ' c ices of that city from whom she in- ted not only great wealth but a rous intellect, a sturdy indepen- ^and a wide benevolence. She re- " the best education this country give, which was widened and " by long foreign travel and vnd by association with the best both at home and abroad. Her Veins to have early turned to- , jterature, and the published ex- e*^om her writings show her to r tj, eu a graceful and powerful c She excelled in epigramatic ess of expression, and her let- Hind in such aphorisms as "/"' *i;oo generous to see the faults of r ( too noble to proclaim them e *- \ -obation, the winning $2 25. I ommaud respect one ',_ \ ^ natural abilities, to , only be worihy of employment, ')ut the insignificant .ity from their is more \ -tfenown, for it is \ Lit is easy to de- '% j jo nature and her 'i<; JOHT* I try show her/ ; c,iation of e.t 'He careth for them.' So I said to myself ' are you not of more value than many sparrows,' and went on my way along the preci- pice's edge, and, like the flowers and the birds, was not ai'vaid." Her description of Hyde Park is an- other bit of fine wotd-painting : HYDE PARK. % "Far away to the westward of the vast and crowded, .metropolis, stretches t\\& three hundred 'and in u>a beautifully diversified -with grassy ! hillocks, clover-gfown knolls, and tiny ; moss- lined valley ft. Through it flow the clear waters ot. the Serpentine, re- flecting flowery blnka, and the leafy branches of tall jrees That rock the nests of summer Ifirds whrsc tlmlung melodies the very beggars are i enough to buy. "I never saw anything half so perfect \ as this lovely picture of the country, spread out in the very heart of a great city, to refresh with equal benefit care- worn inhabitants of narrow, thickly crowded alleys, and the sicklier cheeks of the more crowded drawing-room oc- cupants. It gives a charming feature to a city landscape, especially in the eye of one, who comes from a laud where the feverish eagerness to turn everything into gold is always drown- ing the voice of nature in the noisy din of business where trees are only beau- tiful for the cords of wood they will make, and pleasure grounds are eye- sores because they 'might have been sold for three hundred pence,' and turned to mechanical uses 1 " You should see Hyde Park of a Sun- day, to get an idea of London's popula- tion and London's wealth. You would think it were some gala day, as your eye wandered over the motly throng of ' ^ "V triumphal procession tiae stylish looking equipages ' is i'rom one end to the other .. / Those immense grounds. There are ma- jestic cavaliers, beside splendid car- riages tilled with beautiful women in costly rtfbes decorated with golden crests and drawn by superb horses, ^uidedjjj coachmen in powdered wigs and gay TivSfies. The footpaths, too, are thronged with people from a humbler walk of life people in their holiday dresses and their holiday smiles'! The effect is so imposing', that if you were to see only the kaleidoscope views of life that one gets in Hyde Park of a Sunday afternoon, you would take it for an Elysium of beauty and pleasure, rather than the thing of toil and care and somny that it is. But the everyday side of the picture would quickly break the spell. All the live-long week, misery and want and wretchedness are toiling in the self- same thoroughfares, with aching limbs, and breaking hearts and tearful eyes; , for one-half the world must toil and at, and groan, that the other half . thrive and rejoice. The London ets are thronged with hoary heads to the grave and craving charity to pay their way, and with tiny t just pattering into life, that are already learning to keep time to the beg- gar's voice. I wonder if i shall ever get hardened to the piteous tales that tie one's ears at every step, and the riifirged types of suffering that make one's eyes wet and one's heart sick." But it was when her sympathies were aroused and her heart ached for others' misfortunes that her pen most truly re- vealed the tenderness of her heart. This is what she writes after a visit to an orphan asylum : "To me there ia something heart-rend- ing in the sight of a motherless child. Like some lone bark, tossed by mighty billows, I tremble for it. My heart yearns for it, and my hand involuntarily stretches out to protect it. I want to shelter it in my own arms, cradle it on my own breast, comfort it all my life ; and yet, as I sat there among those pooi little orphans, with the tears roll- ing uown my cheek, I seemed to forget them all in one, or rather to concen- trate the misery of all in that one A whom I longed to secure from sorrow i and misfortune. I drew the little crea- " ture to my side, caught her in my arms, and kissed her time and time again." ( Her eloquent appeals through the 1 press for aid to go in search of the ill- starred Sir John Franklin were highly appreciated by Moses Grinnell, whose generosity fitted out the Arctic expedi- tion, and BO highly did he esteem the .brilliant author that he jra.'e a dinner or honor in New York. The eutcr- jiuent was given on Bond street, in i i.he citv of Naw York, in tha ya*r A distinguished con to meet her, amor Kent Kane, who published " tive of the Expedition in seaj John Franklin." She received, also, from Lady Prank- lin herself a letter in which i-l.e ex- pressed her deep sense of grati cude. Mrs. Billings' first husband was Ca Jas. F. Armstrong, a distingtu- cer of the U. S. N., and after his d> she was married to Judge Billings, of ' New Orleans. Lifted above the sordidTcare^s of life, with perfect congeniality of thought and taste, their married life was ideally happy. Of it Judge Billi n " She reveled in the bloom and the unchecked verdi) and plants in our Southern ho clear, mellow ekics, in the ai character and manner which is f o not only in the French-speaking portion of the citizens of IS ew Orleans, but to some extent among all, in the amuse- ments which are well nigh perpetual, in the hospitalities extended to famous people from abroad and in her elegant intercourse, in which her amiable, warm-hearted nature delighted, with those true and tried New Orleans friends, whose admiration for her was shown by the most thoughtful, unre- mitting Kindness. "Self-denying, self-forgetting, in sick- ness and health she followed me with unslumbering oare, and upward tend- ing suggestions like tb at of the minis- tering spirits sent of "Our enjoyment had the mellowness of the midday of liie with the unabated freshness of its nion in idyllic leisu: cupatiou and com;' luxury ai poverty, or even was in our houses c comfort, for it was above aad beyond these accidents." Not Beatrice, nor Laura, nor Charlotte has been more tenderly immortalized. But across the brightness of this day the shadowof death fell, and not all that affection could suggest or science could do could stay the dread moment when the idolized wife and beloved friend must go into that unknown laud where her sublime faith saw nothing to fear- only rest from suffering and the eternal love of her Father and her God. Such is tne story of the life, grand in its simplicity, sincerity, self-abnega- tion and high, unbending purpose of Emily Sanford Billings as .her hus- band tells it, as only he could tell it, who knew her best and loved her most truly. Told with the truest skill and most consummate art, in that it makes the reader tho sharer of his joy and sorrow "Who had one wife and who clave unto her." The volume also is a marvel of the printer's art. The binding is rich and elegant, and the line engravings done by Kingsley, the famous artiSt of the Century, who is a boyhood friend of Judge Billings, are examples of the artist's very best work. There is a soft- ness, a breadth and a -tenderness of feel- ing in the pictures that betray a master hand. The book is issued from the famous De Vinne press, and is printed on soft, thick paper, and the unconven- tional designs on both covers show much artistic taste and perception. On the rich dark cover on one side, beneath the name, Emily Sanford Bil- lings, is a silver scroll, on which is en- graved a noble sentiment from one of her letters, while on the other is a lovely impression of a palm which was taken, from her own New Havon home as a model for the design, as were also the lily and foret-me-n5teS*EIca ^inscription on the page opposite the ait of her beautiful face forms tne fitting frontispiec. wonderfully exquisite volume, is from a Photograph by H.B. Hall. Jr. So true BO beautiful, so satisfying and satisfied! ^V hat a boon to all who truly loved her have her own face so truthfully re^ produced, with her fi oul Bo clearly shining through it. , The book is not for sale, but with lavish generosity Judge Billings has enriched his friends with the gift of thi memoir of a beautiful life. One f eela it a pity that the book cannot have a wider circulation even than this. The author has in the compUed and original matter given a guidance to every wo man, and though he may feel his sor- row too sacred for strange eyes to rest upon, he should give to the world at large at least an epitome of the beauti- ful traits he has sketched so graph ically, that young girls may be taught to what heights womanhood may a tarn. J ** Remarks by Judge E. C. Billing*. LPAILY PICAYUNE- - EMILY SANFORD BILLINGS /^i^i DEDICATION TO MY SWEET MOTHER, HEPSEY DICKINSON BILLINGS, I dedicate this Sketch, with the hope that, even by a tie so frail and perishable as words of mine, may be linked the memory of her, who first revealed to me the sacredness in woman's character, with that of her who, in all the relations of life, .so conspicuously and endearingly illustrated that sanc- tity ; that these two beings who had, as typical mother and wife, successively stood by my side, like angels, inciting to all that was good and repelling all that was bad, and who first