Intimate recollections of Joseph Jefferson . erson good-bye whenhe left home to fulfill his winters engage-ments, and always among the first to greet himin the same way, on his return; and I know shewas mourned as sincerely as though she hadbeen a member of the family. There was no fire department at BuzzardsBay, but the natives worked hard to save whatthey could from the burning building, muchlabour being given to rescuing a modern, up-right piano decidedly out of tune, while a price-less antique cabinet, brought from Europe, in-laid with china plaques and wonderfully carved(its mate being at
Intimate recollections of Joseph Jefferson . erson good-bye whenhe left home to fulfill his winters engage-ments, and always among the first to greet himin the same way, on his return; and I know shewas mourned as sincerely as though she hadbeen a member of the family. There was no fire department at BuzzardsBay, but the natives worked hard to save whatthey could from the burning building, muchlabour being given to rescuing a modern, up-right piano decidedly out of tune, while a price-less antique cabinet, brought from Europe, in-laid with china plaques and wonderfully carved(its mate being at present in the MetropolitanMuseum in New York), stood near.—But thepiano was saved! (and the owner most gratefuleven for that). Many things were destroyed which it wouldbe impossible to replace. A palette used bythe great painter Corot, also a copy of autobiography, which had been in-terleaved with sketches and paintings by artists,scenes of the places mentioned in the book, andoriginal letters from old actors and prominent. JOSEPH JEFFERSON 27 people, making a most valuable the many paintings lost was a portraitof Mrs. Siddons by Sir Joshua Reynolds, oneof Reynolds by himself, many fine examples ofCorot, Daubigny, Troyon, Rousseau, Mauve,and many others. The first time the writer saw Mr. Jeffersonafter the fire had occurred, she said to him: Oh, Father, how unfortunate! All your beau-tiful pictures gone! To which he replied: Never mind, my dear, think what fun I amgoing to have buying more! The insurance on this house and its furnish-ings was ridiculously small compared with thevalue of the articles which were in it—espe-cially the paintings and the library—but evenat that the company sent their agent toprotest against the sum Mr. Jefferson had setdown for loss of his personal wardrobe, whichwas about two thousand dollars. They wishedto know if that was not a large estimate to Jefferson said that he thought not, as thisincluded hi
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