The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-03-26

MRS MAY FRENCH SHELDON.
for exploration and healthful excitement
which comes from doing daring deeds
which distinguish her above all others of
her sex She has recently gained much
wider fame even than her novels brought
her by undertaking an expedition into
Central Africa, and only short time ago
she actually started upon this expedition;
but on the threshold of the great wilder
ness she has met with some setbacks
which have temporarily delayed the con-
summation of this most audaciouS pur-
pose.
Mrs. Sheldon while living in New York
met her husband, who is a very busy man,
but who delights in his wife's audacity
and who encourages her in her remarkable
purpose. Mr.. Sheldon is an Englishman,
and soon after his marriage he took his
VIE to London. There he was devoted to
the accumulation of fortune, while she
at first gave her attention to modelling
and to sculpture. This work, while she
delighted in it, was very injurious to her
eyes, and Mrs. Sheldon was obliged to give
it up. Her husbands business called him
again to America, and they at one time
lived in New Mexico and afterward in
Cuba and in Central America. Here Mrs.
CuCiuOh Impulse lhcooOiON bNit
and she wrote one or two interesting books,
as well as series of articles which were
published in one of the New York news
papers, and which were distinguished for
their briliiancy of style and the exquisite
depletion of life and scenery as she had
found them in those strange countries.
On their return to Europe Mrs. Sheldon
busted herself with the translation of some
of the French masterpieces of literature.
She was che authorized translator of Flau-
bert's "Salambo," which many of the
critics regard rs the most exquisite specl-
men of historical romance which any
French writer has given US. This transla-
ton was itself work of art, being all the
more difficult because Elaubert's style is
as delicate, pure and delightful as anything
in French literature. He is indeed re-
garded as the great master of style, and
Mrs. Sheldon was able to convey an ade-
euate suggestion of his power in her own
translation.
1t was while she was writing this trans
lation that Mrs Sheldon conceived the
IDEA of undertaking an original historical
romance herself She had selected the
theme, had the plot well thought out and
the treatment OF the story thoroughly con-
sidered, but she desired to get local color
ing, and she therefore determined, after
Stanley had shown how Darkest Africa"
could he penetrated, to go herself so that
she might see with her own eyes and get
inspiration through her senses to be util-
lied in the writing of her romance.
Her husband, while regretting the loss
Of her society, was yet delighted with her
boldness and her courage, and had abun-
aant faith in her resources and her energy
10 accomplish that which she sought to OBJ
tain. Mrs. Sheldon will take as a COM
panion Il friend-a woman who is accom-
plished, educated, and who has some
knowledge of medicine and botany. Be
sides this companion she will have trust
worthy body servant, and these three will
make up the expedition, except that she
expects to hire some Ethlopians as car
riers.
Mrs. Sheldon pays the expenses of the en-
tire expedition herself, and she declares
that she has no idea of conquest, does not
expect to win any honors as an explorer,
but simply desires to get view of inner
Africa, and to make a study of the people
and the characteristics she there discovers
as only a woman accustomed to travel and
strange scenes, as she has been, can do.
She says that she is satisfied that there is
romance, pathos and perhaps humor TO be
found in the lives of African women, and
she desires 10 witness these phases of char
acter, TO study these emotions and to make
use of them in the work which she conten-
plates writing.
In England the expedition has been one
OF the sensations of the hour, and while
there are many who think Mrs. Sheldon
will fail, vet those who know her best be-
leve that she will accomplish the under
taking. unless she is prevented by sick
ness or unforeseen accident. In this belief
Henry II. Stanley shares, and he has been
one of the most enthusiastic of Mrs. Shell
con's supporters, and has given her the ad-
vantage of mis- own experiences in sug-
gestions of how, when and where to travel
f. !. EDWARDS.