The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-06-04

compare her in this respect to nothing but
one OF those luminous fountains which
delighted the people SO at the Paris expo
sltlon. There is neither end nor beginning,
one color running into another incess
antly, the whole being pleasant and bril-
Liant. Start Mrs. Burnett on any SUBJ
iect under the sun and your task Is ac-
complished.
A question, suggestion, name is
sufficient and away you go. 1t is like
opening the throttle valve of locomotive.
You will be whirled away over noun
tains, rivers and plains, and will keep on
whirling as long as there is steam in the
boilers. The difference between Mrs.
Burnett and the locomotive is that the
latter has to follow the rails. She follows
nothing.
AS she talks it fairly takes ones breath
away to see how she glides from one SUBJ
ject to another. From Theos she glides
to Italy, takes in the Rue de la Paix and
Paris fashions; glides to New York, then
smoothly to fox terriers, to ponies, to an
adventure in Surrey, to amateur photog-
raphy, to the choice OF a profession, to
Washington society, to the latest crimes.
and winds up with dress reform and her
plans for the summer.
/ am afraid that gives the idea that Mrs.
Burnett is chatterer, which shows how
hard it is to paint people truly in words.
The very charm OF her talk is that all OF
these changes come about naturally, each
growing out of what went before just as
the colors in the fountain blend, the one
into the other. Now it is Buddhism, now
pet dogs; you don't know how you got
over the gap, and you don't care. 1t was
done artistically, and there was no intel
lectual jolting in the process.
HER GREAT POWER OF IMAGINATION.
a word about her "reminiscences of child
life now being published in Scrfbneg's
called up flood of memories of her own
childhood from the day when she. tot OF
three, formed an unfavorable opinion of
her nurses intelligence, because the lat
ter tried TO deceive her in the matter of
holding her baby sister. The precision
with which Mrs. Burnett remembers her
own mental state at such an early age,
and indeed all through her life, is proof
of the unusual intensity of her sensa-
tons. She remembers more things than
other people do because she has felt more
things and felt them more deeply.
Her tendency to analyze and puzzle
over the characters and motives of per-
sons about her is even more developed
than her tendency to self-analysis. She
is always putting herself in other people, 8
positions, always trying to see with their
eyes and feel as they do. This often
causes her very great suffering, for she is
affected by the ills and sorrows of others
almost as mach as though they were her
own, indeed for the time they become her
own.
HOW SHE CoNvERsEs.
Mrs. Burnett is clever, of course she is,
as everyone who has read her books
knows. But not everyone has had the
privilege of knowing the sparkling clev.
erness of her talk. think Mrs. Burnett
can say more bright things in given
time than any woman in Washington
which is high tribute. And they are
not frothy bright things, such as one
usually hears, but have basis of earnest
thought which fingers in the mind aftel
the laugh has died away. l have set dowr
here few gems picked from several O
her conversations. The words are natur
ally mine, as no monograph was at hand
but in each instance the thought was pre-
cisely hers:
81 have to admit being an AFFECT slav,
to the pronoun of the third person it
l can only do good work when 1t is will
ing, and it is very particular. hav,
never been able to dictate my writing.
because 10 would rebel and go on a strike
II insists on seeing the ink from my
pen.''
Interviews are almost invariably bad
To be an ideal interviewer one Should
have the novelist'S power of ANALYSIS
and person who had that would be busy
writing novels.''
ssAmerica wears me out with interrup-
tions, and yet l have done most of my
work in America, ! suppose that is be-
cause the most of my time in Europe i.
spent recovering from the shock of hay
ing been in the United States.''
Il got over caring for fame when l wa
in my teens. | sawythe folly of workins
SO hard simply that the world NAV be
little longer in forgetting one. | wrot.
because l had to write. The doing of the
thing was its own reward. should have
kept on writing had the publishers sen
back all of my StOrieS.'
81 should not be surprised to learn tina
l am Buddhist without knowing it.
am constantly finding am something
never suspected myself of being. reao
a book or an article and say to myself
Why, those are my ideas; thought al
that myself years ago. This man ha!
stolen my thunder In the same wa,
Buddha may have plagiarized my un
born thoughts. -
Zone OF my great trials in life is to ge
a good pen. The pens other people hav,
are always better than mine. | never gs
into bank without coveting the lovely
smooth flowing pens / find there. usu.
ally beg two or three from the cashier