The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-08-26

ancy and spring of movement that is
very noticeable, and tells of some I'M
quenchable vitality of spirit rather
than of physical strength. This grace
of her own at once contrasts and har-
monies with her manner. which is
gentle to timidity, and, coneiliatory to
the point of being flattering, but if any
one concludes that therefore she is
easily Influenced, ready to abandon her
point of view for his, convinced be-
cause she is talked down, they make
a very natural but very big mistake.
She hates to have her interest in ma
ture viewed as her reason for being,
hates to have it assumed that she is.
as it We're, a professional lover of ma
ture. and the prose she writes about
the processes and passing of the sea-
son is not especially dear to her.
She writes a great deal. She asks
no carefully constructed seclusion for
her work. In a familiar circle when
others are talking or singing or play
ing cards. she will be making notes on
the back of a letter or bit of wrap
ping paper-whatever comes handy
She is perfectly free from any literary
affectationS or poses, unless indeed it
has come to be a little of an affecta-
ton to assume a prosaic tone about
her work. and / refuse to admit in
words the pleasure she takes in it. She
would rather tell you what time she
had Strengthening out a line, than any
thing about the rapture of creation.
: She is probably more frequently re-
I presentd in the best periodical litera-
ture OF the country than any of our
writer's. but there is nothing about her
of the airs of grea tness that are so
familiar in various small fry.
Much of the tribute that is paid her,
especially when it comes in the form
of direct face to face compliment rath-
or te9zes than eratifieS her
AS she gets a great deal of such trib-
ute in New York; she is very popular,
very much sought after in literary cir
Giles.
Though it appears but little in her
writings, Miss Thomas has a fund of
small stories with which she points
Nand illustrates her talk; she delightedlY
compares some literary verdict to the
/crown conferred on her many years
ago by a country newspaper who said
she was "the best amateur poet in
northern Ohio;'' to this day she refers
to herself as the 3. A. p. N. O.; and
she finds a great many attitudes
among the would-be intellectual people,
that remind her of the lady who took
her to review a piece of scenery. and
then asked her gra0ely, whether she
preferred to converse, or to admire it
in silence.
Miss. Thomas has ceased to consider
Ohio as in any sense her home. Her
winters are spent in New York, where
she has her home in the family Of DR..
r r. Elliot, and her summers are
divided between New London, with the
same friends, and Cape Cod where she
is the guest of Mrs. James Herbert
Morse. In both places she lives the
simplest outdoor life, luxuriating in old
clothes, rowing and swimming, enjoy
ing her own peculiarly subtle and
fanciful observation of fields and
woods and sea, and seeing very little
Of the considerable literary colony that
Irgathers in these days in New London.
She writes and reads, but as it seems
Lcnly incidentally to the real business
of life out of doors. She is laughed at
for keeping every available vase and
cup and pitcher in the house filled with
wild flowers, till her hostess declares
1t a problem to keep free enough dishes
for housekeeping.
Miss. Thomas begins a good many
more modern novels than she ever fin
ishes, for she has a desire to see what
pleases other people, and to be pleased.
too, If possible, but the effort oftenar
fails than succeeds in that field. Haz-
lett offers her rose she likes better.
and Keats gives her the best entertain
ment she finds in the printed page.
she started out as a devotee Of Keats
<xnd still constant to him. She has a
t~ste for scholarship, and likes to
translate Horace or write very re-
spectacle Latin prose for her own
pleasure, and she has a habit of add
ing to other peoples pleasure by
throwing a great many of the little
daily happenings about her into very
amusing little verses that never see the
light OF print. She illustrates them toe.
with pen and ink sketches that add
in very small corner-to the gayety
Of nations.
VIOLA R0SEpnpn