This impromptu speech made a deep impression. In the newspaper reports great stress was laid on it, with singular result. She was amazed next day to hear her name roared out in the Midway Plaisance by a touter who stood at the gateway of one of the sideshows where some Orientals were at prayer. "Come in, all ye Christian people," the man cried. "Come in and see these devout Mohammedans at their devotions. Julia Ward Howe has knocked the orthodoxy into a cocked hat." The quiet little figure, passing in the motley throng, paused for a moment and looked with astonishment into the touter's face, which gave no sign of recognition. "This," said a friend, who happened to come up at the moment,--"this is fame!" CHAPTER VIII "DIVERS GOOD CAUSES" 1890-1896; _aet._ 71-77 A DREAM OF THE HEARTHSTONE A figure by my fireside stayed, Plain was her garb, and veiled her face; A presence mystical she made, Nor changed her attitude, nor place. Did I neglect my household ways For pleasure, wrought of pen or book? She sighed a murmur of dispraise, At which, methought, the rafters shook. * * * * * "Now, who art thou that didst not smile When I my maddest jest devised? Who art thou, stark and grim the while That men my time and measure prized?" Without her pilgrim staff she rose, Her weeds of darkness cast aside; More dazzling than Olympian snows The beauty that those weeds did hide. Most like a solemn symphony That lifts the heart from lowly things, The voice with which she spake to me Did loose contrition at its springs. "Oh, Duty! Visitor Divine, Take all the wealth my house affords, But make thy holy methods mine; Speak to me thy surpassing words! "Neglected once and undiscerned, I pour my homage at thy feet. Till I thy sacred law have learned Nor joy, nor life can be complete." J. W. H. In the closing decade of the nineteenth century a new growth of "causes" claimed her time and sympathy. The year 1891 saw the birth of the Society of American Friends of Russian Freedom; modelled on a similar society which, with "Free Russia" as its organ, was doing good work in England. The object of the American society was "to aid by all moral and legal means the Russian patriots in their efforts to obtain for their country political freedom and self-government." Its circular was signed by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Julia Ward Howe, John Greenleaf Whittier, James Russell Lowell, George Kennan, William Lloyd Garrison, Henry I. Bowditch, F. W. Bird, Alice Freeman Palmer, Charles G. Ames, Edward L. Pierce, Frank B. Sanborn, Annie Fields, E. Benjamin Andrews, Lillie B. Chace Wyman, Samuel L. Clemens, and Joseph H. Twitchell.