Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1892-03-24
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
TWO WOMEN oE NOTE.

Pen Pictures of Mrs. southworth and
Mrs. Holmes.
The two most popular novelists among
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 L. 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 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 boundess. The
National Era, which brought out Mrs.
Stowe and Gail Hamilton" published
Mrs. Southworth's first serial, "Retri-
BUTTON" and it was the first serial
which issued from an American pen.
Mrs. Southworths first story was pub
lished by the Baltimore Saturday Wis
itor, and was called "rhe Irish Refu-
gee" She was a 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 Boomers 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 ant
made fortune out of her brain, remov
ing to another charming home at Yon
kers, n Y There, last December, sht
passed her seventy-second birthday
and there she still lives and labors
She loves this home, too; and wh'
would not?
Mrs. Mary j. Holmes as novels
has been compared to the late Rev. E
p. Roe. Her works never offend; thei
obvious aim is to teach good lesson
and they reach an enormous number o
readers. In fact, since the death of Mr.
Roe there has been no writer in Amer
lea whose novels have sold as well a
Mrs. Holmes. 1t is said that alread
considerably more than 1,0OO 600 copie
of her works have been put upon tn
market
From childhood the novelist was
dreamer, and sensitive. She says o
the Brookfeld (Mass) farm house il
which she was born: "There was
well-sweep in the rear, and grea
poplar tree shading the windows from
which my young eyes first looked gu
upon the world, which, from my earlies
recollections, has to me been fille'
with shadowy people" Since then
her blue eyes and yellow hair hav
both deepened and darkened, but she /
still the same sensitive, imaginativ
being, of an older growth, much O
whose life is spent in another world
Some steps in her outward life: A
three she commenced school, at 81
studied grammar; at thirteen taught; a
fifteen had her first production pull
, lished: married a lawyer of Richmond
N Y; removed to Versailles KY, wher
her first novel, Tempest and Sur
shine," was issued Afterwards tn
stories came on apace, until now the
number about thirty. But, althoug
Mrs. Holmes is rich, has been with a
her labors of love) almost universe
, traveller, and has lived for many year
,, in an elegant home at Brockport, N. Y
she is still modest, and a friend and
delightful entertainer to all the girl
whom she draws to herself in the fiesl
All biographical notices of hersel
she says, seem to her like funeral Sc
: mons" To be written up" makes he
9 very nervous" Which are some {
the pains incident to fame.
In person Mrs. Holmes is tall, slende
e and graceful, has large, blue eyes an
brown hair. She is fond of chi
: dren, although her large, quiet HON
4 shelters none of her own. She and he
E husband, as stated, are great traveller
and when they return from som
E foreign land nothing gives the popula
Y author so much pleasure as to gatht
). around her a company of young poop
Il and tell what she has seen and learne
+ abroad. Her beautiful home with i
:. music its works of art its CONSERVATION
II filled with rare plants and flowers,
n an index of her refined and educate
i character.
). Mrs. Holmes home is thus describe
r The cottage is an unpretentious fran
{ house, painted brown, and only fe
minutes walk from the depot. 1t
= however, unique, with dormer wi
:, dows, tiny balconies, coy hooks, al
;, bow windows looking out upon the v,
vety lawn. Fine oil paintings are a
ranged artistically in the DRAWN
a room, together with several beautif
water-colo and choice cole
, ton of bric-a- brac, delicate mosaic
pieces of statuary, and rare old chin
. In the middle room or lower librar
upon numerous shelves built into t
% wall, is a valuable collection of boo
n handsomely bound, and in the mich
IS are placed the statuettes, Ruth al
'Rebecca," "Yenus" and apollo B.
!, vedere." The dining.room is furnish
= in the p~availin rnOdarn ctvla will