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Pansy’s Ministers

Published on by Isabella Alden2 Comments

Before Isabella’s novel What They Couldn’t was published in 1895, it appeared as a serial story in a Christian magazine.

Book cover showing four young women near a table; two stand with their arms around each other; two are seated while one plays the guitar. An older woman stands at the table stirring the contents of a silver chafing dish.

The story centers around the Cameron family and the difficult adjustments they face when their wealth disappears. Not only do they have to learn to pinch pennies, they also have a difficult time figuring out who they can trust, and that includes the Reverend Mr. Edson.

One subscriber to the magazine who read the story was upset by the way Isabella portrayed Mr. Edson as a social-climber himself. The reader was so upset, he wrote a letter to the magazine’s editor to complain:

A subscriber calls attention to the portrayal of the young minister in Mrs. Alden's story, and asks: What percent of Presbyterian pastors would make use of such language as is there put into his mouth? Has any member of your force ever known a minister to speak such words about a member of his congregation? If Mrs. Alden knows such a pastor, it would be better to give his true name, and not attempt to make the impression that he is representative.

He was certainly upset enough to close his letter by issuing a direct challenge to Isabella!

If Mrs. Alden knows such a pastor, it would be better to give his true name, and not attempt to make the impression that he is representative.

Luckily, Isabella didn’t have to respond because others responded for her. The magazine published this response:

Mrs. Alden does not put the character forward as a representative of the ministry in general. No writer of the day has a higher appreciation of the ministers, or does more to help them in their work, than she.

And here’s what one of her defenders wrote in a letter that the magazine published the following month:

One Case. Here in the State of Washington was just such a minister as the one Pansy speaks of in her story. In fact, he told me that his congregation did not suit him; that he could not preach a good sermon to it because the people in it were not refined and intelligent enough. I will add that he is supposed to have left the ministry. [signed] M.H.M.

Of course, What They Couldn’t was fiction and—as authors often state— “any resemblance by any character to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.” But in her years as a teacher and as a minister’s wife, Isabella probably met a church pastor or two who, like Mr. Edson, was more concerned with ministering to the wealthy members of his flock than the less privileged congregants who could have benefited from his guidance.

Have you read What They Couldn’t? If not, you can read it for only 99¢ from your favorite online retailer:

New Free Read: How Barbara Helped

Published on by Isabella Alden1 Comment

Isabella knew that non-believers sometimes judge Christians by their deeds rather than by their words, and this month’s free read illustrates that point.

Book cover with image of young woman in long white gown standing on the shore of a lake. Her hands are clasped behind her back and she holds a yellow parasol. She looks out across the water and watches sailboats in the distance.

Miss Fannie Fletcher has important work to do! A girl in the Sunday-school class she teaches is a new Christian, and Fannie is determined to help her grow in faith. But how can she ever hope to accomplish her dearest desire when her family makes constant demands on her time?

You can read “How Barbara Helped” for free!

Choose the reading option you like best:

You can read the story on your computer, phone, tablet, Kindle, or other electronic device. Just click here to download your preferred format from BookFunnel.com.

Or you can select BookFunnel’s “My Computer” option to receive an email with a version you can read, print, and share with friends.

A Hard Text about Gifts

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Isabella’s brother-in-law Reverend Charles M. Livingston wrote several articles for The Pansy magazine in which he explained Bible verses that might seem confusing to children. Here’s one he wrote in 1892:

Matthew 13:12:

For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

No, it does not seem fair at all to give to him that has something, and to refuse it to one that hasn’t anything scarcely, and even to take away what little that one has! Just think of giving a rich Pansy five hundred dollars more, and then snatching away the last penny from a poor Pansy!

Surely you don’t suppose the loving, gentle, merciful Lord Jesus meant any such thing? Of course he didn’t.

What did He mean?

Why, simply this, my dear: that one who makes good use of his gifts will have more gifts. He will grow wiser and better, and go up higher all the time, just like a tree that uses well the good ground and good air and good dew around it.

And the tree that, for some reason, won’t send its roots down this way and that, and set every one of its leaves to breathing—such a lazy tree will lose all its life and die, the first wide-awake tree sucking up that very life.

It may be just so with two Pansies. One is good, true, active; the other one isn’t—how one will go up and the other down; how one will increase and the other decrease until one seems to have all the good, even the little the other started out with.

Think on it in this way:

You borrow from a bank one hundred dollars and pay it back with interest when your note is due, and quite likely the bank will loan you two hundred dollars then, if you want it, and so on, increasing it just as you are faithful.

But if you don’t pay as you promised, your one hundred dollars will be taken from you and loaned to one who may have ten thousand dollars, because he makes good use of it.

We are all on trial. How happy we should be to be trusted by the Lord! It’s a fearful thing when he will not loan us any more.

What do you think of Rev. Livingston’s explanation?

You can click on the links below to read more of Rev. Livingston’s “Hard Text” articles:

A Hard Text about Burdens

A Hard Text about Swearing

A Hard Text in Matthew

A Hard Text: Matthew, Mark and Luke

A Hard Text

A New Chautauqua

Published on by Isabella Alden4 Comments

Isabella Alden had strong ties to Chautauqua Institution in New York. She and her husband Ross were early contributors to the assembly’s success. For years Isabella served as president of the Chautauqua Missionary Society and was superintendent of the Primary Department of the Sunday-school.

Profile photo of Isabella Alden at about age 35. Her hair is parted in the middle and pulled back to a large braided bun at the back of her head. She wears no jewelry. She is dressed in a garment with a high neckline, with a ruffle at the base of the collar. A lace jabot peaks out above the high collar and spills down the front of her bodice.
Isabella Alden, in an undated photo.

Several years later, in 1885, the Aldens were instrumental in opening a new Chautauqua in Florida. You can read more about that here.  

So it’s no surprise that Isabella was among the first to get involved when a new Chautauqua assembly was organized in Ohio.

News clipping: FROM LAKESIDE. An Inter-State Sunday School encampment is now being held at Lakeside. This place is on the peninsula twelve miles south of Put-in-Bay and about the same distance from Sandusky. This is the second meeting of the kind that has been held here. The other one held last year was a success. There were present able teachers and lecturers. The present meeting has been a success so far.
Excerpt from The Tiffin (Ohio) Tribune, August 1, 1878.

Much like the original New York Chautauqua, the Lakeside Chautauqua (established on the shore of Lake Erie) began as a camp meeting in 1873 with a series of revival meetings.

Photo of a promontory point of land on the shore of the lake. a short pier extends from the land out onto the water. Beside the pier is a white building with a tower. To the right along the shore line is a grove of mature trees and a park.
View of the Tower and Park 1909. Caption: This 1909 photo shows the Lakeside tower and dock where steam boats delivered passengers every summer. The dock tower is similar to the one at the original New York Chautauqua.

The early meetings were so successful, attendance grew by leaps and bounds the following years.

Old sepia photo about 1910 of an open park area with children playing and standing in groups. Behind them is an elevated band stand. Behind the band stand and to the left is a grove of mature trees. People sit in groups in the shade or walk under the trees.
An early band stand in the park at Lakeside Chautauqua (courtesy Lakeside Heritage Society)

In 1877 Lakeside officially joined the Chautauqua movement and held its first Sunday-school training session.

Old photo about 1899 of a family posing on the steps of their cottage. The porch has numerous flowering vines that weave in and out of gingerbread trims. On the steps stand two women and a little boy in a sailor suit. Behind them, two men stand and one man sits; each wears a full suit and hat.
Family on a Lakeside cottage porch 1909 (courtesy Lakeside Heritage Society)

The following year, Isabella visited Lakeside Chautauqua to conduct training sessions for children’s Sunday-school teachers.

A normal class meets every day for which good instructors are provided, also an exegetical conference to which is given an exegesis of passages of Scripture difficult to interpret. This is conducted by Dr. Vall, of New York. There is also a children's class meeting every day. One of the instructors is Mrs. Alden, better known as "Pansy." A music class under the direction of Prof. N. Coe Stewart, of Cleveland, also meets daily.
An excerpt from The Tiffin Tribune, August 1, 1878.

Lewis Miller (one of the founders of the original New York Chautauqua) and “Chalk Talk” artist Frank Beard also participated in the Lakeside summer program of 1878.

At 2 P.M. we had chalk-talks by Frank Beard, Esq., of New York. His lecture was very entertaining. It is wonderful how quickly and accurately he does his caricaturing.
Excerpt from an article in The Tiffin Tribune, August 1, 1878.

Frances Willard, President of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, was also a featured speaker that summer.

Frances Willard in an undated photo
At 3 P.M. Miss Frances E. Willard, of Chicago, delivered an address on "Our danger and deliverance." It was a priviledge [sic] to listen to her. She is a great temperence [sic] worker. God speed all such.
Excerpt from an article in The Tiffin Tribute, August 1, 1878.

Add to this the daily lectures and Bible studies conducted by leading theologians and academics of the day, and the new Lakeside Chautauqua was off to a brilliant start!

Lakeside Chautauqua is still a operating today and offers a thriving summer program. You can learn more about Lakeside Chautauqua by visiting their website here.

And the Lakeside Heritage Society has many charming historical photographs of Lakeside Chautauqua, which you can view here.

Have you ever visited a Chautauqua?

There are 18 Chautauquas still operating today in the U.S. and Canada. Click here to find one near you.

Getting Ready to Travel

Published on by Isabella Alden6 Comments

As a minister’s wife, Isabella knew a thing or two about thrift. She knew how to prepare nutritious and economical meals, how to decorate a home on a barely-there budget, and how to create useful household items from everyday materials.

She also admired those traits in others, and shared this anecdote in an 1897 magazine article she wrote:

I will tell you a little incident connected with the lives of two girl acquaintances of mine.

They belonged decidedly to the work-a-day world, and something unusual had come into their lives in the form of an opportunity for a short journey.

They met one evening to talk the matter over.

“Each pleasure hath its poison,” quoted one. “Mine comes in the shape of having nothing in which to pack my voluminous wardrobe. There is not a valise owned in our family, except an old carpetbag affair that looks as if Noah’s wife used it. And even that isn’t available. Tom must needs take it.”

Drawing of an old-fashioned satchel with brass buckles and straps to keep it closed.

Mary, who was to be her companion in travel, regarded her thoughtfully.

“It is queer that our perplexities should be the same,” she said. “Only there is no satchel of any sort in our family. I brought away my belongings in an old family trunk so large that it was a question, for a time, whether I had not better set up housekeeping in it, if I could have afforded ground-rent.”

drawing of an old-fashioned steamer wardrobe standing open. On the left side of the wardrobe is a space to hang clothes. On the right is a series of drawers in difference sizes to hold clothing and accesspries.

Then the girl who had complained of the satchel looked remorseful and sympathetic. What were old-fashioned satchels, when one had father and mother and Tom?

“Never mind!” she said cheerily. “We can do our things up in newspapers. It won’t take a very large one to hold mine.”

We did not see them again until two days afterwards, when we met at the train. She of the “carpetbag” came first. Her bundle was characteristic of her, and awkwardly wound about with cord unnecessarily heavy. It was not wrapped in newspaper, it is true; but the brown paper was too stiff. It refused to listen to coaxing fingers, and crackled a good deal.

“I don’t know how to tie up bundles,” its owner said merrily, “and I did this in an awful hurry. I thought I was late. Hasn’t Mary come yet? Oh, here she is. Why, Mary Sheldon!”

The exclamation evidently belonged to Mary’s dress-suit case. That was what it looked like. A neat, trim valise, holding evidently quite a wardrobe, yet so compact and of such shape that it was easy to carry.

Drawing of an old suitcase with brass closures and corner guards.

“Where in the world did you borrow that? How nice it is! It will be ashamed to have my old bundle for a travelling companion.”

“It isn’t borrowed,” said Mary with dignity. “It belongs to me. It cost fifty cents.”

We gathered around her with exclamations and inquiries, and evolved this:

One of the boarders in the act of moving threw out as rubbish a pasteboard box in which a suit of clothes had been sent home from the tailor’s. It was about two feet long, one foot wide, and six inches deep, with a cover exactly the depth of the box.

Drawing of an old box-style suitcase with straps to hold it closed.

Mary, taking possession of it, covered it with dark-green cambric, at seven cents a yard. It took two yards. This was for strength. Then she re-covered it with plain wall-paper of a tint that suggested leather. Nine cents furnished enough for box and cover.

Drawing of various sewing tools: a needle with thread, a paper package of needles, a needle threader, a pin cushion with pins, a cloth tape measure and bolts of fabric.

By that time she thought that she had a very good travelling-case; but, having grown ambitious, she determined to make it still more useful. Twenty-five cents bought a yard of strong gray denim. This she cut and fitted at sides and ends, and, having bound it with dark-green braid, and sewed strings on it at intervals, she had a neat protective cover for her travelling-case, and one that added materially to its strength, as well as to its capacity, should occasion require. A shawl-strap to carry it by (which she already owned) completed the neat outfit.

Drawing of a large suitcase and satchel. Both have brass closures and leather straps.

“You are a regular genius,” said the girl with the bundle, admiringly. “I might have invested fifty cents myself. But then, it was an awful bother to make it.”

Which, let me explain, was the marked difference between the two girls. It was not so much the inventive talent that the one possessed above the other. It was the habit that the other had of considering little common-place efforts of that character “an awful bother.”

I wonder how many girls who are sighing for “Boston bags,” or leather hand-satchels, or even neat, trim two-dollar “telescope bags” as beyond their means, will get a hint from my friend Mary’s management? I see ways of improving on her work. Do any of you?

Drawing of a stack of four old suitcases.

New Free Read: A Vacation Endeavor

Published on by Isabella Alden2 Comments

July’s free read is a short story Isabella wrote in 1894 about a subject she felt strongly about; namely, that Christians were never “off duty” when it came to influencing others for Christ.

Kay Morse and her friends are enjoying a perfect summer vacation together, until Kay’s conscience puts her at odds with everyone. Can she help them understand why they must follow their Christian Endeavor principles—even while they are on vacation?

You can read “A Vacation Endeavor” for free!

Choose the reading option you like best:

You can read the story on your computer, phone, tablet, Kindle, or other electronic device. Just click here to download your preferred format from BookFunnel.com.

Or you can select BookFunnel’s “My Computer” option to receive an email with a version you can read, print, and share with friends.

Pansy’s Letter-box

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In 1876 Isabella Alden was serving her second year as editor of The Pansy magazine. At that time the magazine was published monthly and by all accounts, it was a success!

Children regularly wrote letters to her, telling how much they enjoyed an article or story. Some sent in word puzzles they had made, in hopes their puzzles would be published to delight (or possibly stump) other readers.

They also wrote to Isabella about their birthdays, how they spent a holiday, and the difficulties they encountered in daily life.

A little boy picks up a little girl up so she can put a letter in a post office mailbox. In the foreground is an envelope addressed "To Pansy"

Here’s a letter a boy named Orvie B. Strain wrote to Isabella about the fun he had on April Fools’ Day.

Dear Pansy: 
I will tell you some of the funny things that happened to me April first. I took an empty oyster can, done it up in brown paper, and laid it on the sidewalk. A young man came along, looked at it a minute, and then kicked it off the sidewalk, and I didn’t watch it any longer. Late in the afternoon, I went to look for it, and I found it all mashed fine. 

As I came from the post-office, I forgot about its being April fool-day. I saw a two-cent piece lying on the side walk; I stopped to pick it up, and it was nailed fast. I had lots more fun, but I’ll not write about it this time. I am nine years old. May I belong to your ‘Pansy bed?’ This letter is written with my left hand.
A little girl holding a bundle of letters stands in front of a post office mailbox. Beside her a little dog holds a letter in his mouth.

Not only did Isabella publish many of the letters she received like Orvie’s, she replied to them all! Sometimes she sent individual replies by mail. Other times she simply wrote a quick reply in the next issue of The Pansy magazine.

Here are a few of those replies from the June 1876 issue of The Pansy. They give us a glimpse into Isabella’s personality and how she interacted with children:

LENA DARLING: 
Delighted to hear from you, my darling. The story is good, and will appear in The Pansy one of these days. Give my love to “Rubie.”
NELLIE MILLS: 
Such a nice little printed letter, with three new people in it! I am glad you think the Pansy “very nice.” Do you know, little darling, that you make Ns up-side down?
FRANKIE PAGE: 
I am glad that you have learned to write. Fifteen cows! Oh my! Can you milk any of them?
A large dog holds a letter in his mouth and stands on his hind legs so he can place the letter in a post office mailbox. 
LAURA KESSNER: 
Welcome to the Pansy bed. You must wait patiently from month to month. Pansies have to grow, you know.
IDA T. DERBY: 
How many words did you miss at spelling school? Tell us all about it. Are there no little people in your “garden,” to make a Sunday-school of? Can’t you start one?
BERTHA WOLCOTT: 
I am glad to hear you think so much of our paper; but you must not expect Pansies to blossom every week! You have made a splendid selection of verses for your acrostic [puzzle].
A little girl in a pink dress and hat holds a large bouquet of purple and pink flowers in one hand. In her other hand she holds an envelope with a red was seal.
CHARLIE FISK: 
Your puzzle is good. It will appear in The Pansy some time. Are you practicing on your verses?
PUELLA HALBERT: 
Have you enjoyed my visits? May you be one of His “little ones.” We must all keep young hearts. See Matthew xviii. 3.
IDA MAY HATFIELD: 
There was good news in your letter. It is very easy to “live a Christian life,” if we always “love to pray.”
JOSEPH WASSON: 
We too have a pony, and his name is Tony. We haven’t any dog; but our Ray, whenever we ask him what he would like to have for a birthday present, says: “A big, black dog.”
A little boy and girl stand at a mail box. The boy holds open the lid of the mail deposit slot so the girl can slip a letter inside. 
WATSON BEAR: 
I’ll answer your questions with pleasure. There’s a lady edits the paper, and her name is Pansy, and ever and ever so many thousands of children take it. You write a letter to all the Pansies, and if it isn’t more than twelve lines long, I’ll publish it. That is a good idea.
HORACE A. STRAIN: 
Yes, indeed; you shall belong to the “Pansy bed.” Will you be a great, purple Pansy, or a little bit of a white one? You got pretty high up in school, didn’t you, and only seven years old? Well done.
EVA HATFIELD: 
Welcome, Eva. We shall not consider you a stranger any longer. We all belong to the same garden. I hope we are all trying for the same home.
A little girl in a blue coat and hat holds a letter close to her chest. She stands beside a post office mail box. A little dog peaks from behind the mail box, watching her.
ALBERT P. OVERMAN: 
Poor little Ralph, or, rather, Ralph’s mamma. How sorry we are for her! You miss him from the Sunday-school, but think what a great army of Sunday-school children he has joined!
MINNIE L. SMITH: 
The puzzle is very nice. It will appear just as soon as we get to it, but there are about twenty-five ahead of you. I am glad you like The Pansy so much. We are going to make it semi-monthly one of these days. What was your prize, and for what was it given? Kiss “Tidy” for me. I think Benny gave her a very pretty pet name. I am glad of the good news about yourself.

Two of Us

Published on by Isabella Alden2 Comments

Isabella’s husband the Reverend G. R. Alden regularly wrote poems, which were published in The Pansy magazine. In June 1891 he celebrated the closeness of siblings with this delightful poem:

"Twice one is two." 
That's a text for you. 
Whether at work or play,
Whether by night or day,
Whether in school or store, 
On table, or shelf or floor, 
This is the thing we do — 
We prove the rule is true.
One cannot truly love alone, 
No more than could a granite stone; 
Better eat dinner without bread, 
Or think sweet thoughts, without a head.
The heart all empty is, you see, 
And one must enter there and be 
The tenant, and fill up the hollow, 
Just like the dinner you would swallow.
Quarrel alone! That would be funny! 
Sooner have bees, but never honey! 
Better a cart with but one wheel, 
Better a flint, with never a steel.
With half a shears, if you were clever, 
You might do work; but you could never 
Quarrel alone, in all your life; 
Someone must help you in the strife.
S'pose that is why God made us two, 
That we might love each other true; 
Not hate and quarrel, scratch and fight, 
So drive away his love and light; 
But helping each, in work or play, 
We'll hurry on the heavenly way, 
And by and by together stand, 
Before his throne, each hand in hand.

G. R. Alden

Something for Papa

Published on by Isabella Alden4 Comments

Father’s Day is this Sunday, and if you are wondering what you can give as a gift, Isabella may have the perfect suggestion for you.

Today we might call Isabella a “crafter.” She often repurposed simple items, such as cardboard boxes, and refashioned them with glue, fabric, and bits of ribbon or lace in order to make something useful and pretty. On her writing desk she kept a pen case and mail sorter she had made.

She often wrote how-to instructions for making simple gift items to give. In 1892 she published the following idea in The Pansy magazine for readers who wanted to make “something for papa”:

Divider
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I am sure of one thing papa will like, and it is something which you can make with some industry and very little expense.

I do hope you know how to knit—the nice old-fashioned knitting which our dear grandmothers understood so well? If you do not, my first advice to you is to master that fine art which has of late years gone so nearly out of fashion; it is coming to the front again, and there is no end to the neat little comforts which you can make with the aid of a ball of tidy cotton and two large knitting needles.

Illustration of two kittens playing with a ball of yarn, which they have partially unrolled and have wrapped strings of yarn around themselves.
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I will not attempt to teach you the stitch on paper, though if you sat by my side I could show it to you with very little trouble. If there is not a dear white-haired grandmother in your home (as I hope there is), borrow one from some friend, and beg her to teach you how to knit.

Having learned it (which I am sure you can do in an hour), get two large-size needles of steel, or ivory, or wood (I like to use wood) and a ball of the very coarsest tidy cotton you can find, and set to work. Cast on as many stitches as the needle will conveniently carry, and knit back and forth, back and forth industriously, until you have a strip a yard long. Oh, it will require patience and industry! But I told you that in the beginning, you know.

On a table is a partially knitted sock with knitting needs. On the floor below the table are two dachshunds who are playing with the ball of yarn and are unraveling the sock. They have tangled strands of yarn around themselves.
.

Having finished the strip begin again, and make another precisely like it; then a third, and perhaps, if your needles are not very long, a fourth—you might consult with mamma or Auntie as to that. When the four are finished ( in order to be sure to have the article large enough we will say four), fold the side edges of two neatly together, and knit them together with a crochet hook, or sew them with a needle and some of the tidy cotton, as you prefer.

Add the third and fourth in the same manner, and when all is complete if you do not have a bath towel which will please papa better than any Turkish towel he ever bought, I shall be astonished and disappointed.

Illustration of four kittens. Three lay on a pillow while a fourth sits beside them. They have a partially-unraveled ball of yarn on the floor beside them, but their attention is on a bee that is flying just above their heads.
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For fear of discouraging you at the outset, I mentioned a yard as the length, but let me whisper to you, entirely in confidence, that if you should make it a yard and a half long, or even a trifle longer, papa would like it better still. You see, I have heard the gentlemen groan over short bathing towels, and I know all about it.

.

You see with how very little expense such an article could be made, and I really do not know of any one thing which will add more to the comfort of the bath. Some gentlemen like very coarse and rough bathing towels, in which case macramé cord is sometimes used instead of tidy cotton; probably mamma could advise you wisely in this direction, also.

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 If you undertake such a gift, I hope you will have the kindness to write and tell me how you succeeded, when and how the gift was presented, what was said, and all about it.

Your friend,

Pansy.

Do you ever make or give hand-made gifts? What home-made gift is your favorite to give or receive?

Are you a knitter? What knitted items do you like to give as gifts?

Free Read: A Glimpse into the Future

Published on by Isabella Alden2 Comments

This month’s free read is a short story about two teenage friends Isabella described as:

“Sensible young ladies” who were “older at fifteen than their grandmothers at the same age thought of being.”

As is always the case with Isabella’s stories, it’s thoughtfully written to illustrate what she would call a “home truth.” But the story also gives us some hints about her personal life.

For example, she fondly describes her memories of May Day celebrations as “good times” gone by.

And later in the story, one of the characters mentions her “Mental Philosophy” class at school. When Isabella wrote the story in 1896, Mental Philosophy involved the study of the consciousness, functional thought, and religion. It was the precursor of what we now call the study of psychology. With her strong background in teaching, it isn’t surprising that Isabella would weave the latest educational innovations into her story.

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When teenagers Eva and Cassie are tempted to visit the village fortune-teller, it seems like nothing more than a bit of harmless fun, until a wise friend shows them what their futures truly hold.

You can read “A Glimpse into the Future” for free!

Choose the reading option you like best:

You can read the story on your computer, phone, tablet, Kindle, or other electronic device. Just click here to download your preferred format from BookFunnel.com.

Or you can select BookFunnel’s “My Computer” option to receive an email with a version you can read, print, and share with friends.