"He
could repeat the entire Bible," says Mrs. Stratton-Porter, "giving
chapters and verses, save the books of Generations; these he said
`were a waste of gray matter to learn.' I never knew him to fail in
telling where any verse quoted to him was to be found in the Bible."
And she adds: "I was almost afraid to make these statements, although
there are many living who can corroborate them, until John Muir
published the story of his boyhood days, and in it I found the
history of such rearing as was my father's, told of as the customary
thing among the children of Muir's time; and I have referred many
inquirers as to whether this feat were possible, to the Muir book."
All his life, with no thought of fatigue or of inconvenience to
himself, Mark Stratton travelled miles uncounted to share what he
had learned with those less fortunately situated, by delivering
sermons, lectures, talks on civic improvement and politics. To him
the love of God could be shown so genuinely in no other way as in
the love of his fellowmen. He worshipped beauty: beautiful faces,
souls, hearts, beautiful landscapes, trees, animals, flowers. He
loved colour: rich, bright colour, and every variation down to the
faintest shadings. He was especially fond of red, and the author
carefully keeps a cardinal silk handkerchief that he was carrying
when stricken with apoplexy at the age of seventy-eight. "It was so
like him," she comments, "to have that scrap of vivid colour in his
pocket.
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