Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1888-06-30

OF setting, all supplied material fol
uproarious mirih in the symposium that
followed each days work.
In 1884 Mr.. Johnson was married to
Miss Frances Mansfield, OF the same
county (Hancockl, whose father was
from the State of Connecticut. Twenty
two was quite sober age for those days,
but his wife was only fifteen. Marriages
used to be contracted at absurdly early
ages, especially in the Southern States.
There was something besides climate to
account for this. Housekeeping there
was such very simple affair.
After ten years of this life at the bar,
/ Mr.. Johnston was offered three positions
almost at the same time "A iudgeship of
the northern circuit, the presidency of
one college, and a professorship i'll
another. This latter offer, as being
most congenial, he accepted, and
was made professor of belics-lettrcs
in the State University, Nd, n posi-
ton which he held for four years,
and then he opened a boys school at his
plantation hear Sparta. There he car
ried on very tlourishing school in con
nection with his farm till 1867. In this
' ChI u Sdtt ttDllltSl q iitIttNtliltilt, lilc
death of daughter Just grown up,
made old places and associations I'M
bearable. Giving up school of GO
pupils, of whom he took Al with him,
he returned to Maryland, intending to
form school there. This he did a few
miles outside of Baltimore. Since that
time he has been teaching, lecturing and
writing.
His first story appeared under the
nom lie plume of Philemon Perch, in
the Southern Magazine, periodical,
largely eclectic, which was published in
Baltimore. In this, as i'll all his other
stories, he went back to the old home
life of his early childhosd. With the
tendency to classical allusion so dear to
The Southern heart, he says: "Of all
places on earth, it is the dearest to me.
The academy grove seems to me now
more beautiful than anything in Tempe
or Arcadia could possible be-"
The merit of his work received almost
immediate recognition. No one was SO
surprised "a its author at the success of
this his first literary venture; other
stories followed, hut it did not seem to
occur to Colonel Johnston to seek n
wider field for his work, or to think of
his writing as a source of income, for he
had contributed the early stories with.
out asking remuneration. In 1879,
however, his dear and valued friend
Sidney La. Ter persuaded him to submit
story to "Scribner's Magazine" now
"The Century" When this was ac-
cepted Mr.. Lanier's delight was I'M
bounded, both because the writer was
his friend, and because the life so vivid.
ly depicted was sweet in his memory.
This story, "Mr Neelus Peeler's Con-
ditions.' forms the point from which
Colonel Johnston dates his literary
career. 1t is a remarkable fact that an
author who has deservedly attained snch
wide recognition for the freshness,
broadness and humor of his work should
have been over fifty years Of age before
he attempted it. and that he should date
his literary life from his fifty-seventh
year.
From the beginning Colonel John
stOn has loved his work and been faith
full and conscientious in it. He does
not write rapidly, nor please himself
easily. The stories that have such an
easy, impromptu air have sometimes
been written over and over again.
Speaking of the principal female charac-
ter in his novel "Old Mark Iangston,"
he SAID: 81 meant to make her mean,
like her father: but before had written
fifty lines about her, she just turned her
self out of my hands with very
graphic gesture, "and there she was be-
fore me: she seemed to say: Don't make
me mean! am woman. You never
knew woman mean like that: and I
had to stop. I inst could not do it. /
somehow, be rough with my
W men; they always seem to rcproach
nr... | cannot forget the reverence due
20 rirfemininity. After pause, "No,
cannc,. do il.
There is no plot in his stories carefully
devised; it$is not so much a story he
,as to tell IA life he has to depict.
The nucleus Of sketch is not thing,
)ut person.
Five books from~ pen have been
published besides "1ii,' Dukcsboro1gh
Tales" Old Mark Lang..nn:" "Two
Tray Tourists book Of sketches of
ravel "Mr. Absllom Biiling,bcc. AMI
)tHer Georgia Folk" land, in conjunction
With William Hand Brown, history Of
english literature, and the Life of
Alexander III. Stephens.