St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-15

only gibe, SO they were not permitted to see
them, nor was the mother. There was queer
little attic room in the house, with rafters
and walls unfinished, and here, with her pet
cat on the table and thick shawl wrapped
around her for warmth, the child of Is wrote
her first complete manuscript and sent it,
with no little misgiving, to one of the oldest
American magazines. vt had cost struggle
even to get the foolseap paper and postage
stamps Three weeks later a lettercame from
the editor. Ee doubted the originality of the
story and asked the author TO send another
before he could decide upon the acceptation
OF the first. For the next two days the little
authoress Struggled in her rafter room and in
her cosy shawl, with her cat purrirg eneour-
agingly beside her, wrote second, briefer,
but better than the first. Joy upon joy
Both were accepted and "Miss Desborough's
/ Difficulties" and ossAees or Clubs" shortly af-
terward appeared In print, introducing Fran
ces Hodgson to the omniyorous, but appre-
ciative reading public Of America. The little
romanticist had Conquered after all. Even
the brothers, whose opinion she dreaded
with a girlish fear of ridicule, were compelled
to admit that Frank" by winning $50 at her
first coup, had done better than ali the rest,
and they calamity predicted that she would
yet retrieve the fortunes of the family.
Since that time Frances Hodgson's pen has
been an exceedinly busy one. Her stories
have appeared in almost every magazine and
journal throughout the United States, many
OF them anonymously, but she soon discard
ed q nom de phune. One of her earlier tales,
s'Suriy Tins Troubles" is in the Lancashire
dialect. and its success decided her to make
more of her early English experiences, with
the result that many of her later tales deal
large with English characters and scenes.
Among the most successful were s'That Lass
O. Lowrie's, "Howarth, )" "a Fair Barbarian"
Through One Administration" and Little
Lord Fauntlerey." The last named has been
twice dramatized, and was presented stimuli
taneousiy at two London theatres. This
book, as the writer declares herself, cost her
more trouble than any other, but it stands as
the ideal picture of childhood, just as she
meant it should, and is in grea measure
family portraiture, drawn from her own do
mestic experience and observation.
In her home life she has been singularly
happy, yet it has not been without passages
OF deep sorrow. Married in 1874 to DR.. S. M.
Burnett, physician Of Knoxville, Tenn, her
two sons, Lionel and Vivian, were the source
from which she drew much of the inspiration
for "Fauntleroy." Death has robbed her of one
OF them. Since acquiring literary fame she
hasemade her home much of the time in
Washington, where she has beautiful resi-
dence, and where her husband has become
distinguished oculist. She is greatly sought
after by the best people in society at the ma
tional capital, and her intimate study of So
cial life and character there have afforded
still further variety for her facile pen and
furnished her later stories with many very
interesting types, She is most charming
hostess, and is much given to entertaining.
Attractive in person, exceedingly bright and
graceful in conversation and manner, she has
become prime fayorite not only with the
ladies of the legations and the cabinet, but
with the exclusive .sNhite House Set as
well. In London, which she occasionally
visits, she is feted and courted by the literary
lights and made muc11 of by the English
publishers, for her books have secured a wide
popularity throughout Great Britain. Few
women, in the present age of hot literary
competition, have won so many golden
prizes, and certainly nofie has better deserved
them. Z y BLANCHE ELLIOTT.