The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-03-16
In WOMAN'S BEHALF.
TWO WOMEN OF NOTE.
Pen Pictures of Mrs. Southworth and
Mrs. Holmes,

women to-day have written continuous
ly for the greatest number of years,
and have published the greatest num-
Der Of volumes. 1t speaks well, also,
for the general morality of the popular
taste that the literature created by
them is pure. Picture the faithfulness
and the persistency, the genius for
hard work, and the elasticity of crea-
ton embodied in two women who,
within eighty years, have produced
nearly one hundred novels-good,
wholesome, some of them exciting,
novels.
Mrs E. D. E. N. Southworth has
been the longest in the harness; in
other words, in the authors chair.
With almost incredible rapidity-she
has sometimes written three volumes a
year-she turned out about sixty nov
els many of them really dramatic and
most of them decidedly sensational
Sensational they may all be, but never
impure.
1t would seem that a woman who had
written continuously for forty-eight
years, and, in her old age, is still writ
ing, would have written herself dry OF
incident and plot. But her ingenuity
and her energy seem boundless The
National Era, which brought out Mrs.
Stowe and Gail Hamilton" published
Mrs. Southworths first serial, "Retri-
BUTTON" and it was the first serial
which issued from an American pen.
Mrs. Southworth's first story was pub
lished by the Baltimore Saturday Wis.,
itor and was called "rhe Irish Refu-
gee." She was teacher at the time
and continued so for several years, but
demands upon her strength as an
author became so pressing that she
soon devoted herself entirely to her
destined vocation. The Harpers, Peter.
sons and Bonners fought for the prod
ucts of her pen, the New York Ledger
monopolizing her stories for many
years. Mrs. Southworth's novels have
been translanted into French, German
and Spanish. having been republished
in London, Paris, Leipsic, Madrid and
Montreal
For twenty-three years the famous
novelist lived in her beautiful villa on
the Potomac Heights, near Washing
ton. During the centennial year she
left Pleasant Cottage, in which she had
woven so many fancies and plots and
made fortune out of her brain, remov.
ing to another charming home at Yon-
kers, N. Y. There, last December, she
passed her seventy-second birthday,
and there she still lives and labors.
She loves this home, too; and who
would not?
Mrs. Mary j. Holmes as novelist
has been compared to the late Rev. E.
P. Roe. Her works never offend; their
obvious aim is to teach good lesson,
and they reach an enormous number OF
readers. In fact, since the death of Mr..
Roe there has been no writer in Amer.
lea whose novels have sold as well as
Mrs Holmes. 1t is said that already
considerably more than 1000, 900 copies
of her works have been put upon the
market
From childhood the novelist was q
dreamer, and sensitive. She says Of
the Brookfeld (Mass.) farm house in
which she was born: "There was Q
well-sweep in the rear, and great
poplar tree shading the windows from
which my young eyes first looked out
upon the world, which, from my earliest
recollections, has to me been filled
with shadowy people" Since then
her blue eyes and yellow hair have
both deepened and darkened, burt she is
still the same sensitive, imaginative
being, of an older growth, much Of
whose life is spent in another world
Some steps in her outward life: Al
three she commenced school, at six
studied grammar; at thirteen taught; al
fifteen had her first production pub
lished: married lawyer of Richmond
N Y; removed to Versailles, KY. where
her first novel, Tempest and Sun
shine" was issued. Afterwards the
stories came on apace, until now they
number about thirty. But although
Mrs. Holmes is rich, has been with al
her labors of love) almost universe
traveller, and has lived for many year:
in an elegant home at BroclSport, N. Y.
she is still modest, and friend and &
delightful entertainer to all the girls
whom she draws to herself in the flesh
All biographical notices of herself
she says, seem to her like funeral ser
mons" To be written up" makes he
very nervous" Which are some o
the pains incident to fame.
In person Mrs. Holmes is tall, slende
and graceful, has large, blue eyes ant
brown hair She is fond of chill
dren, although her large, quiet hom
shelters none of her own. She and he
husband, as stated, are great travellers
and when they return from SOM
foreign land nothing gives the popula
author so much pleasure as to gathe
around her company of young peopl
and tell what she has seen and learne,
abroad. Her beautiful home with it
music, its works of art, its conservator,
filled with rare plants and flowers, i
an index of her refined and educate,
| character.
Mrs. Holmes home is thus described
The cottage is an unpretentious fran
house, painted brown, and only fey
minutes walk from the depot 1t is
however, unique, with dormer win
dows, tiny balconies, cozy hooks, an
bow windows looking out upon the We
vety lawn. Fine oil paintings are al
ranged artistically in the drawing
room, together with several beautifu
water-colors and a choice colleC
ton of bric-a-b rac, delicate mosaic:
pieces of statuary, and rare old china
In the middle room or lower library