The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...

506

THE STORY OF MY LIFE.

On my arrival, I was conducted to a large parlor adjoining the lecture room, handsome in its appointments, and evidently the headquarters of a society or club. Here I hurriedly changed my dress, leaving my traveling suit, bonnet,
cloak, and other discarded articles of apparel on chairs and
sofas, in a very helter-skelter fashion. My large valise wide
open on the floor, revealed its contents at a glance, which
were of a miscellaneous character, an abbreviated hoopskirt
with a bustle attachment, such as was worn at that time,
being among them. There was no time for an orderly
arrangement of my belongings, and I supposed the apartment was at my service until after the lecture.
I was detained in the lecture hall at the close some ten
or fifteen minutes, by old friends, and when I returned to
the parlor to pack my valise, I found a company of young
men in possession, not only of the room, but of my goods
and chattels. It was their club room, and its occupancy had
been given me without their knowledge, their consent to my
use of it being taken for granted. They were having a gay
time, and the hall resounded with their badinage and shouts
of laughter. One of them, with his hat on one side, and a
cigar in his mouth, was attired in my hoopskirt, and was
strutting about with a great pretence of being hampered by
it. Another had donned my traveling dress, and was caricaturing a woman's way of managing skirts. A third had
dressed himself in my bonnet, which he had put on hind
side before, and then tied on with my veil to keep it on his
head, and was marching about the room wrapped in my
long winter cloak. Others were rumaging my valise, in
quest of something for their transformation or adornment,
while a few were protesting against the performance. To
say that they were surprised at my appearance is to state
the situation feebly Never was a company of young