The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-03-21
A DISTINGUISHED TRIO.
Detroit Free Press.l

Detroit Free Press.l
 Genius is seldom hereditary, and it is a rare occurrence that one family should contribute three illustrious names to the records of fame, as in the present in- stance. Two of these have faded into the gold and rose perspective which enshnnes the immortal dead. One re- mains with us, a representative of that ideal education known as of the "old school" which combined the grace of re- ligion with the elegance of scholarship, and which left upon its graduates an in- delible stamp of intellectual and personal refinement. Richard Storrs Willis, now, and for many years past, a resident of Detroit, is one of the favored three and bears in his personnel the distinguishing traits alluded to. Like his brother, N. P. Willis, he is natural journalist and is quick to see and appreciate the salient points of character, which can be seized on for travesty or tribute. But unlike either, he has been the possessor of un- limited wealth, and has never felt the goading spur of necessity. In his beau tiful home on Jefferson avenue, sur rounded by all that can make life de- sirable, he has no call to be other than a dilletante. But MT. Willis is still in the activity of his fame, if not of his years, and these are by no means as mature as his biographers have made them. In his own handwriting MT. Willis records that he was the youngest, save one, of a family of nine-that he was born in Bos- ton in I8Io and graduated at Yale col lege in I84I After graduating Mir. Willis went to Germany, where he spent six years in study, returned to New York, married, and entered upon the family profession of journalism, as a writer on the New York Tribune, the Album and the MHsfeaI Zimes, until he became himself an editor. As the family was noted for its journalistic tendencies and reputation. as far back as four genera tions, or hundred and twenty-five years, it is not surprising to learn from various sources that MT. Willis was eminently successful as a journalist while engaged in that capacity. Realizing that the dry details of biography are seldom interest ing, while the person written about can give his own picture, with the color of life, a representative of this paper called on MT. R. s. Willis at his business office in the Mofat block and was granted a half hour of courteous information. Mir. Willis chatted familiarly of his sister who, under the nom de plume of Fanny Fern, made herself both money and fame. A volume of his own poems, bound in Russia leather inscribed in gold, lay on the table. It opened at the II7th page as the representative of the Free PresJ took it up: "The Dependency of St. Paul"
 "Ah, make me what am not
 The much alas claim not,
 l canAot what l would be
 And sigh for all that should be-"
 Mir. Willis referred to the poem on page 87 as one that had seen much ser- vice in a patriotic way. It was written in answer to demand in 1861 for the best patriotic poem, and had thousands of competitors. There were three judges to pass on the merits of the poem, one of whom was Richard Grant White. It was called the Anthem of Liberty:
 Anthem of liberty solemn and grand
 Wake in tay loftiness, sweep through the land, Light in each heart anew patriot fires,
 Sing the old flag again, flag of our sires
 Hail to thee, banner thou scroll of the great, Lost shall be never star nor a statel''
 And so you want to know something about Fanny Fern from her brothers lips" said Mir. Willis speaking in that tone of cultured repose which is now almost lost art. "I can tell you this She was . woman with a great heart. When she was young she went to school to Catherine Beecher, sister of Henry Ward Beecher. Many years after when Miss Beecher was quite an old lady my sister met her and recalled her school days. sYes, yes,' said Miss Beecher. 1 remember you perfectly. You were the most troublesome scholar l had and loved you the best"
 Mir. Willis said that Sarah made them all lively at home with her pranks, and alluded feeiinEiy 10 her happy married life with Mir. Eldridge, his death and her subsequent pecuniary losses which made her pen a necessity.
 l" It was in I847 that she began to write" said Mr. Willis Cher husband had died the preceding year. Like the rest of her family. Mrs. Eldridge found a ready and good friend in her pen, and as Fanny Fern achieved b0<h reputation and fuGtune. Bonner treated her in princely manner, but she also increased the ciE- ealation of the Lldgev immensely. Once sAe vrufe an article commenting the mlnner h which A. T. Stevart's clerks v1ited upon customers without regard to 6eix dress og relation MT. Stewart was so paeased that he sent a man to the xxag1 office to get the address of Fanny tan, p1k t was denied to him as it vas bo III Othsrs- But A. T. Stewart was not aman to be denied He discovered the u1i1H and sent her an elegant outfit, v1icA vzs indignantly returned One day sAen she was Mrs. Parton she was