she had always extemporized on the piano with freedom, she had never thought seriously of composition; but in May, 1895, without warning, forethought, or effort, the inner musical life began to express itself in this form. At first Mrs. Orth's compositions were for the piano alone, and were naturally the outcome of her intimate knowledge of the musical needs of children. To the writing of music for children many seem to think themselves "called," but indeed few are by nature chosen. Such music must^be naively simple, well defined in rhythm, and as spontaneous as a child itself. To write music of this type without triteness requires nothing less than a rare sort of genius. Accomplished musicians, men famed for their work in larger forms, have tried this and failed. Indeed, it may be questioned if any but a woman, a mother full of the child spirit, can adequately, lovingly, and sympathetically give musical expression to that which appeals to the child heart. Mrs. Orth's work has clearly shown her to be one of the chosen few.
Perhaps the most original of all piano works for children is her "Mother Goose Songs without Words," Op. 5. This volume contains seventy little piano pieces in the exact rhythm of the Mother Goose rhymes, which are printed on the opposite pages, each number a tone miniature, grave or gay, quiet or sparkling, according to the story portrayed. The success of this musical volume and her delight in writing it prompted Mrs. Orth later to the composition of "Mother Goose's Jubilee," an opera for children, in three acts, which was performed with the greatest success at the Tremont Theatre, Boston, for a week in the spring of 1901. In the opera the tribe of Mother Goose assembles to celebrate her jubilee. The company is received by Mother Goose and Jack, her son, at her cottage in the wood, identified as the House that Jack Built. The characters speak, as they naturally would, the language of Mother Goose, the entire libretto, a unique feature, being based upon her rhymes and jingles. In its published form this opera, her Opus 12, a volume of sixty songs, is the largest collection of its kind in print. To group together sixty short songs without suspicion of monotony is in itself an achievement.
Mrs. Orth subsequently composed the music for a comic opera, entitled "The Song of the Sea-shell," which ran for a week in one of the Boston theatres in April, 1903. While so much of Mrs. Orth's work has been devoted to music for children, her Opus 25 and Opus 26 reveal her melodic gift in serious songs of a higher type. Among her other published compositions may be mentioned the following: Op. 1, Four Character Sketches in F, for piano; 0]). 2, Six Recreation Pieces, for piano; Op. 6, "The Merry-go-round," eighteen piano pieces; Op. 7, "Daffodils," three piano duets; Op. 10, Ten Tone Pictures for the Piano; Op. 11, Twelve Miniatures for the Piano; Op. 15, "On the White Keys," an introduction to the piano; Op. 19, Festival Minuet; Op. 21, "Ten Little Fingers," ten piano pieces; Op. 23, "What Little Hands can do," ten piano pieces; Op. 28, Songs for Sleepy-time, twenty-four children's songs.
MARY A. LIVERMORE, LL.D., public speaker and writer, during the Civil War one of the foremost of the Sanitary Commission workers, and in these later years an able and distinguished advocate of social reform, is a thorough New England woman by birth and breeding, and through six generations of paternal ancestry. Born in Boston on December 19, 1820, daughter of Timothy and Zebiah Vose Glover (Ashton) Rice, she bore until marriage the name Mary Ashton Rice. She was one of a family of six children, only one of whom besides herself—a sister Abby, Mrs. Coffin—attained adult age and is now living. Her father served in the United States navy in the War of 1812. Her mother was a daughter of Captain Nathaniel Ashton, of London, England.
Edmund Rice, the founder of this branch of the Rice family in Massachusetts, came from Barkhamstead, Hertfordshire, England, in 1639, and settled in Middlesex County, making his home at first in Sudbury, and removing thence to Marlboro. He was known as "Goodman Rice," and was a citizen of influence, being appointed to solemnize marriages, a function not entrusted, to the clergy in those days,
