Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-01-04
MRS. BURTON HARRISON.
Interesting Sketch of the MOUNTAINOUS
Southern Authoress

The new South is much talked OF now
and has orators and writers through whom
changes and progress there have become
familiar TO all the world Mrs. Burton
Harrison. who was Miss Constance Cary.
is not better known for her delineatlons. OF
society of to-day in New York than Tor
themes she has made peculiarly her own
by methods of treatment IN which t sne
excels-stories of the Old South. OF Viz
pinia IN colonial times. of the years i'm
medintely preceding the war between the
States, or of that period of heroism, priva-
ton, and pathos which began at Manassas
and ended at Appomattox.
She is a Virginian of an ancient lineage.
Through both her father (Archlbald Cary
and her mother (Monimia Fairfax she
came by an inheritance to love OF htera-
ture and an early and ready use
of her pen. Her father was close
of kin to Thomas jefferson, and was de-
scen6ed from the first president OF VII
liam and Mary College. who may be called
the father of letters in the colony: his
mother was educated by the sage of Mon
ticello in his old age, and herself MADE
contributions to the literature OF her day
America the Carys had continued TO re-
ceiye the best of opportunities. not only
in Virginia but in England, tor liberal
culture.
GREW UP AT FAIRFAX.
Miss Constance Cary grew up at 'Vau-
cluse. home of the Fairfaxes IN the coun-
tv that bears the family name. and there
found not only the English and French
classics. but many an old book of the eigh-
teenth century now forgotten or to be dis
covered only in great public libraries. She
pored over those treasures wherever a WIN
dow-seat or quiet nook allowed escape
from things which distract even III the
daily life of se1uestered country-house.
| Growing up in such an atmosphere. with
| traditions OF older homes of her people
and of the patrician order they. had illus:
trated before caste had altogether ceased
| to influence the society she was born into,
| her mind was stored with the incidents
she has described and the pen-pictures
she has drawn Chiefly in articles from
| time TO time appearing in the Century, OK
daily life at Mt. Vernon, Belvoir, and
| Towlston in the generation after 1850, and
| of the stately men who then dwelt or as
| sembled there.
WHEN THE WAR BEGAN.
| She was still in happy young girlhood
| of such surroundings when the war over
| took us, and Fairfax county was occupied
| by armies confronting each other; Nau-
| cluse was necessarily abandoned after Ia
j ulCS Oh LQt HOucbnOlu uhU hooNhy DuAANN
| the family silver IN cellar, and the old
| house was soon RACED to the ground to be-
| come the site of fort in the defences OF
| Washington--brick and debris filling the
| cellars and furnishing q secure covering
| for precious candlesticks, spoons. forks,
| salvers, coasters, and like relics of the reign
| ofgood Queen Anne. until they could be dug
| out four years afterward. Miss Cary was
| with her mother and aunt at Bristow sta
ton in the rear of the Confederate army
| when booming guns and rafting musketry
informed her of the varying fortunes OF
| the fight at Manassas--her brother and
many kinsman in tho fray and until
four long years we're gone she was familiar
! with things such as she tells in Grows
Nest" Renaissance of campaigns OF
arms and anguish. and OF romance, too.
As soon "a possible after the war was
| ended she went with her mother to Europe,
md saw the Tuileries and the empire IN all
the glitter of the elimination OF the third
| Napoleon's reign, returning to be married
and to live thenceforth in New York.
HER RARLY CONTRIBUTIONS.
The earliest Of Mrs. Harrison's contribu-
tions 10 the magazines WAS "A Little Gen.
tennial Lady" III 1876, followed by articles
upon my Lord Fairfax, of Greenway
Court, in Virginia" The Home and
] HAunlS Oh NtSuluHton. duQ lihC boPico-
In 1878 she wrote Golden Rod, an ldyl OF
Mount DESERT; aid since then she has
published Tho Story of Helen Troy,
Woman's Handiwork in Modern Homes,
1.-THE Old-Fashioned Fairy Book" " Bal
Harbor Days,n aud "Bric-a-Brac Stories.
In The Century, this last summer, appeared
ANONYMOUSLY Tho Anglomaniacs," anC
il has now been published in book form--i
sketch of society to-day which has had {
great and well-deservcd success; and with
in month she has given US Flower d.
Hundred: The Story of Virginia Planta-
tion," beginning with mention OF the i'm
migrant Of 1850 and his offspring for two
hundred years, and finally dealing with de
ecendants who still own their ancient
homestead on the lower James river. aftel
all the perils and misfortunes of war anC
of other adventures-astoryi into which the
author has evidently put more OF her owl
deep feeling than into anything else sh'
has written.
ASA PLAYWRIGHT.
She has also been O successful play
wright. Her Russian Honeymoon" Gar
adaptation from the French of Scrtbe) has
run of many weeks at the Madison
Square Theatre, and is still in vogue
throughout the country. Several OF he
short comedies have been repeatedly per
formed with credit by the cloverest of on
amateurs, and all the best known of he
plays have now been collected and pub
lished together.
Mrs. Harrison's style is finished and G
ON admirable literary quality, her tonci
light and graceful. her English excellent
her stories are characterized by dramatic
effects, delightful conversation, entertain
ing sketches of character. and charming
descriptions of nature; a sparkling wi
anmatcs everything she writes. and a tru,
and refined woman's good breeding ant
kind and tender feeling illumine ever
situation. even The Anglomaniacs, will
all its keen satire upon the follies OF tn
society around us. afording no occasion
for complaint even, by those whose type