AT THE BREAKFAST TABLE: OUR MODERN AMAZON

I'm trying on my armor, dear,
With which my battles are won.
I shall count some brilliant conquests before
The summer sun has gone.

Here's a white dress and a lily-trimed hat
And a parasol like foam;
They'll make my eyes look darker yet,
As I fetch my prisoner home.

You would think this simple silk,
As light as a sea-gull's wing,
Could bring down many a knightly heart
In the lists of a "summering!"

Here's a fan-- it is not smoke,
But lace and ostrich feather;
It will be watched by eyes that ask
My fancy's wind and weather.

And here's a yachting suit that says,
Upon life's merry wave
I, like an admiral, shall win
Engagements brisk and brave.

And at this shoe, all tipped with gold,
A trembling slave shall stoop--
A vassal whom a rival queen
Lost in some waltzing group.

In short, when autumn once more hangs
The land with gorgeous hue
I shall come riding back to town
In triumph, wouldn't you?

--Rose Hawthorne Lathrop

Hawthorne's kids:
Una, Julian & Rose, 1862

In 1892, Julian & Minnie Hawthorne [Rose's older brother & wife] asked Rose and George to see if Richard could use his influence with Grover Cleveland to get Julian appointed as consul to Jamaica. We don't if it was done, but Julian did not get the appointment.

George sold much more of his work than Rose did. Using Hawthorne family papers, he wrote several things about Rose's father. Julian was critical of George's use of their father's fame. George wrote the libretto for an operatic version of "The Scarlet Letter." In 1895, the opera was performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Rose and George stayed with the Saint-Gaudens, during the opening. They were living in New London, Connecticut by this time. Its been said that George was a drunk and that was the reason Rose finally left him.

About this time, Rose tried to sell Richard on a project about her memories of her father and his unpublished letters, but The Century Magazine wasn't interested.