Vanished Arizona: Recollections of the Army Life by a New England WomanSummerhayes, Martha
History
Vanished Arizona: Recollections of the Army Life by a New England Woman
Summerhayes, Martha
Arizona -- Biography; Arizona -- Description and travel; Summerhayes, Martha, 1844-1926; United States. Army -- Military life
And we had a series of informal dances and invited the distinguished
members of the artist colony from New Rochelle, and it was at one of
these dances that I first met Frederic Remington. I had long admired his
work and had been most anxious to meet him. As a rule, Frederic did
not attend any social functions, but he loved the army, and as Mrs.
Remington was fond of social life, they were both present at our first
little invitation dance.
About the middle of the evening I noticed Mr. Remington sitting alone
and I crossed the hall and sat down beside him. I then told him how much
I had loved his work and how it appealed to all army folks, and how
glad I was to know him, and I suppose I said many other things such
as literary men and painters and players often have to hear from
enthusiastic women like myself. However, Frederic seemed pleased, and
made some modest little speech and then fell into an abstracted silence,
gazing on the great flag which was stretched across the hall at one
end, and from behind which some few soldiers who were going to assist
in serving the supper were passing in and out. I fell in with his mood
immediately, as he was a person with whom formality was impossible, and
said: "What are you looking at, Mr. Remington?" He replied, turning
upon me his round boyish face and his blue eyes gladdening, "I was
just thinking I wished I was behind in there where those blue jackets
are--you know--behind that flag with the soldiers--those are the men
I like to study, you know, I don't like all this fuss and feathers of
society"--then, blushing at his lack of gallantry, he added: "It's all
right, of course, pretty women and all that, and I suppose you think I'm
dreadful and--do you want me to dance with you--that's the proper thing
here isn't it?" Whereupon, he seized me in his great arms and whirled me
around at a pace I never dreamed of, and, once around, he said, "that's
enough of this thing, isn't it, let's sit down, I believe I'm going to
like you, though I'm not much for women." I said "You must come over
here often;" and he replied, "You've got a lot of jolly good fellows
over here and I will do it."
Afterwards, the Remingtons and ourselves became the closest friends.
Mrs. Remington's maiden name was Eva Caton, and after the first few
meetings, she became "little Eva" to me--and if ever there was an
embodiment of that gentle lovely name and what it implies, it is this
woman, the wife of the great artist, who has stood by him through all
the reverses of his early life and been, in every sense, his guiding
star.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account