In the early summer of 1876 I made a long visit to my friends, Ida and Alice Cushman, who lived with their aunt, Miss Rebecca Wetherell, in the fine old Wetherell house on the corner of Broad and Chestnut streets, in Philadelphia. Mr. Cushman, their father, a miniature painter of distinction, took us often to the Art Gallery of the Centennial Exhibition, and with him I studied the fine collections that the European nations sent to this, our first World’s Fair. The Centennial did much to stimulate every phase of the growing art life of our country. With me, as with thousands of others, art became from this time forward one of the absorbing interests of life; for several years I hoped to be an artist. The winter after my father’s death my mother decided to go to Europe. I know now that the trip was made entirely for my sake, and that she was loth to leave the many interests of her Boston life. President of the New England Woman’s Club and the Association for the Advancement of Women, she held important positions in half a dozen other organizations for public service. She made the great sacrifice for my sake, and I, like other young people, accepted the maternal devotion as a matter of course! Before sailing for Europe she determined that I must know something more of my own country. Massachusetts I knew pretty thoroughly, Rhode Island a little. I had a bowing acquaintance with New York, knew Washington by sight. That was all, and in her judgment not enough. She arranged a lecture trip to the Middle West to meet the expenses of our journey. This gave me my first realizing sense that lack of money is one of those minor obstacles in life that require only a little courage to overcome. Of this trip I remember only the wonder of Niagara, the bustle of Chicago, the pleasant yellow brick city of Milwaukee, where we stayed at the luxurious house of my mother’s friend, Mrs. Doggett; last and best, how I ran the express from Milwaukee to Chicago! We were to make the journey with one of the directors of the road, who, finding how much I longed for this experience, escorted me to the locomotive cab and gave me into the hands of the engineer, with the words: “This young lady thinks she would like to be an engine driver. Let her have a chance to try it out!”