Article May 16, 1908 Issue

MRS. EDDY IS NOT ILL

Edwin J. Park

Boston Globe

Baseless rumors to the effect that Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, is seriously ill at her handsome home in Chestnut Hill, have been circulated for several days. The inspiration for the rumors appears to have been a despatch published last Saturday morning in a New York newspaper, which said that Mrs. Eddy was suffering severely as the result of a cold and had been unable to go out for a drive for two weeks. Each statement in the despatch referred to was denied seriatim yesterday [May 12] at Mrs. Eddy's home, and the writer, who saw, shook hands, and talked with Mrs. Eddy, certifies that she is apparently stronger physically and quite as alert mentally as she was eleven months ago, which was the last former occasion upon which he had an opportunity of conversing with the noted woman.

There was yesterday no visible indication that the passage of eleven months' time has in any way affected Mrs. Eddy adversely. Her eye is as bright, her handclasp as strong and hearty, and her voice as full and steady as when I visited with her for forty minutes on the afternoon of June 15 last year at her old home in Pleasant View, Concord, N. H. If there has been any change in Mrs. Eddy's physical condition during the past eleven months it has been for the better. Yesterday afternoon I saw her walk from the door of her home, through the porte-cochere to her carriage, into which she stepped alone, without assistance from any one, and there was neither hesitancy nor weakness in her step. When she returned from her drive I saw Mrs. Eddy in her workroom. She rose from her chair when I entered the large room, stepped to the outer end of her long desk, and grasping my right hand with hers gave me a vigorous handshake. In her greeting to me, and in the few words she said following that, there was no quaver or other uncertain quality in her voice, which was as full and strong as it ever has been, or rather during the year I have known her personally.

Mrs. Eddy is undoubtedly in good health. When I asked her if she were well, she replied, "Why, of course," as though the question had been superfluous—as it probably was. No one of her household has at any time been disturbed concerning her physical or mental condition, for there has been nothing in either to give them cause for concern. The household and those other friends who are nearest to Mrs. Eddy say unanimously that at no time since she removed from Concord, N. H., to Chestnut Hill, on Jan. 26, has she shown the slightest signs of indisposition, and they are greatly mystified over the publication in New York Saturday morning of a despatch, dated Boston, stating that for two weeks previously Mrs. Eddy had not been able to take her drive.

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