Page:Frances Wood Shimer 1826-1901.djvu/20

 extraordinary in acquired talents and the gift of knowing how to use natural gifts&mdash;skill and versatility in achievements, thorough equipment for all kinds of work, imperious mastery of circumstances, penetrating accuracy in reading human nature; extraordinary in personality&mdash;buoyancy of spirit blended with sternness of principle, extreme simplicity and singular modesty united with unreined ambition and indomitable will; extraordinary in business dealings&mdash;ability to undertake and consummate great enterprises, adroitness to probe a project for motives, cleverness to foresee the finality of a negotiation, punctiliousness in claiming deserts as in discharging obligations. With a well trained, logical mind, quick to comprehend and keen to grasp all sides of a question, she combined a feminine intensity and attention to details that gave fervor and force to all she did.

Few people really knew Mrs. Shimer. The multiplicity of demands upon her time developed a conciseness, brevity, and directness in speech and action which some interpreted as sternness and austerity. Others thought her cold and unapproachable. Greater mistakes were never made, and could arise only from ignorance, for she was the most genial, affable companion, the sincerest and warmest of friends.

Her many-sided character was too frequently judged from the standpoint of the observer. Those who met her in business relations recognized her efficiency, executive ability, tact to achieve results, courage to face opposition, faculty to comprehend advantages or disadvantages; but in such dealings they had no glimpse of the gentle woman, the motherly heart, the self-sacrificing, generous spirit which prompted every action. They saw the clear gray eye scan critically a business proposition, or flash with resentment at an infringement of fair dealing; but they did not see it when it beamed with kindness or melted with tenderness, when sickness or sorrow called for sympathy. They saw the firm mouth and lips, which in a few words could state and close a transaction; but they did not hear them when they whispered words which gladdened a heart bowed down, quickened a failing pulse, lifted a load of sorrow. They marked the alertness to profit by competition in trade, but did not know her earnest enjoyment in applying the