Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-13
WOMEN WRITER'S IN NEW YORK
A Glimpse of the Transactions In Some
Interesting Literary Coteries.
From the New York Sun,

From the New York Sun.
There are various literary coteries in New
York, nearly every one with rendezvous at
the house of some woman whose name is occa-
sionally printed in magazines or in books. A
stranger having the entry of these circles would
get the idea that the only writer's in town are
women. The men who appear at these weekly
receptions, which the ladies call salons" are
apeculiar order of beings. They are not writer's.
Either the men writer's will not 60 to these at
fairs, or they are not wanted. As a rule, the
men whom one meets at these places are plan
lists, song composers, prestidigitateurs, palm
lists. readers and the like. Everybody is always
in evening dress. the ladies very decidedly so.
The hostess rules absolutely in each set She
Is In each case a married woman whose hus-
band is not met by her guests. 1t appears to
be the rule that on her evenings the literary
hostess shall reign on the only sofa in the
room. There she is always to be seen, in
decollette costume, reclining upon an elbow
buried in cushions. The men and women ac-
cost her, each in turn, and each staying by her
side long enough to pay few compliments
and shed some commonplaces During the
evening there are always loud calls for some
thing from the hostess, and eventually she
rises and reads her latest effusion. One of
these literary queens usually produces what
may be called compositions-though she calls
tueIu essays. DuI she Teau5 tDem Just the same.
Afterward they are syndicated and sent to the
western papers. As often as possible the queen
Of each set secures literary lioness and brings
her out in New York on these occasions. The
lioness sits beside the queen on the sofa until
the time comes for her to read her piece.
There never was anything funnier than the
recent appearance of a molselike little crea-
ture in the so-called salon of a woman who
writes fervid love pieces of the sort made
famous 10y Mrs. Rives and Mrs. Wilcox. There
on the sofa by the queen sat the new lioness,
the most shrinking, timid, girlish little bit of
femininity ever seen outside backwoods par
lor. She wore very low evening dress, of
course, but it painfully evident that she
was not at ease in it. To every one the queen
said: Let me introduce you to Miss -, a
poet of passion" The little mouse of a girl
raised her frightened eyes and then dropped
them. She could not talk, but that was not
noticed in the flow of the queens conversation
Passion seemed the furthest removed from all
conditions in her case. The queen read the
last poem of the little mouse, and it proved as
tropical as an Algerian sun. The ladies famed
themselves and the men looked at the floor
But the little mouse did not move a muscle
through 1t all, not even the muscles that
pleased vanity makes use of in the human face
The talk INDUCED in at many of the literary
receptions is one Of the most remarkable fea-
lures of the so-called literary life Nothing is
either too intimate or too unconventional to
be discussed. Yet the impression is made that
the singular choice of topics is part of the en-
tire fantasticals. Forbidden ground is the
chosen field in private and public, but it is oc-
cupied with degree of GOODNESS that robs it of
the sting of suspicion. These ladies visit the
realms of bisexual psychology as Sisters of
Charity might enter bar-rooms.
The other night the head of one of these sets
gave to her little world an explanation of the
most striking products of the passion writer's.
She spoke as one having inspiration.
I'm the case of the novel that excited 80
much attention." she said ''the passionate
writing was simply the result of a natural con-
dition. The authorizes was in love and engaged
to be married. She knew nothing of what She
was expressing Those who know do not wish
to write. She was not even conscious of Civ
ing expression to anything extraordinary.
Thoroughly in love, and with an intense pas
sionateness, her soul and intellect were under
strain which found relief in writing. Her
next work, written under wholly
different conditions, lacked all that
the first one contained. She will never write
another book like that first one. It was very
much the same with a lady who used to write
the feryid poetry which gave her reputation.
She was at first seeking some one upon whom
to lavish her affections; subsequently she too
was engaged. With marriage has come new
role as writer of the most calm and philo-
sophical compositions"
The well-to-do women serve tempting little
luncheons at these symposia. The others pay
no heed to such earthly wants as those that the
practice of eating and drinking satisfies.