The San Francisco call., 1895-10-13
OHATTY Bah
Talks on a Variety of Interesting Topics of
the Day,

Talks on Variety Of Interesting Topics Of
the Day.
NEW YORK, Oct. 9, 1895.-There is no
doubt about it that it is considered very
smart nowadays to be literary. Every
other woman you meet, after she has
talked about her dressmaker. her milliner
and the men, asks you quite confdentially
if you have any pull" with an editor.
And then she goes on to say that her
stories are just as good as. well, she don t
always say Balzac, but she thinks it, or
anybody else, but she is sure that the
editors don't read them. She delights in
showing you her workroom. There is a
superbly cut inkstand with the blackest of
inks up to the very brim; there are quills
and stubs, fine and soft pens mounted in
most effective holders; there are different
sized papers and all the paraphernalia of
a desk, mounted in silver. Then there are
books OF reference galore, and books of
quotations until it would seem as if novel
might be made up by merely selecting
from them. Ii you call early in the day
you are told that your friend is busy with
her literary work. 1t reminds me always
of the old story of the mountain and the
mouse, with the pain of the mountain in
tensified and the smaIlness of the mouse
requiring the use of a microscope TO him
who would see it.
THE SPIRITUAL" AUTHOR.
The consequence is that a good many
women have become awful bores. A
pretty girl said to me in a condescending
tone, Don't you even translator And
when 1 said "No," she looked at me,
raised her eyebrows and remarked that it
was pity, which was kind of her. And I
felt like adding, "Pity, pity. pity in this
city, there's not committee say on A.
AS" which being put into English,
means on amateur authors. One woman
brought me hymn which she described
as being spiritual, with a sufficient
amount of the material in it to be appre-
cIated by sinner" AS a representative
sinner, 1t seemed to me pretty poor. The
meter was bad imitation of Swinburne' s
"Faustine," and the religious ecstacy was
altogether too much for an ordinary
mortal.
This was the first verse:
When the essence divine looks out from your
Obi believe;
And the downcast soul is impelled to arise
OH believe;
That the worldly Joys, so dear this day,
Fade like the suns last warm, sweet ray,
Oh believe.
Altogether there were seven verses of
the most unmitigated bosh that was ever
written. But the misguided woman to
whom 1t owes its birth has had it printed
at her own expense, and bound in white
and gold, for private circulation only. 1
wonder If everybody will do as | did? The
binding was lovely, so l tore out the poetry
and used the covers to keep loose photo
graphs in.
THIS HYMN-WRITING CREATURE
Is married and speaks of her husband as
"a kind but SHINING SOUL" and of her mar
rage as "one where there is no sympathy
but mutual agreement to let each seek
that which seemeth best unto his SOUL"
Goodness graciousl 1 respect everybody's
belief. A frog praying to a mushroom
would only excite sympathy in nv mind,
but have no use for this sort of thing.
More women have made men find pleasure
away from them by making home
wretched, barren place, where the fine
furniture seems only dedicated to souls,
While the mistress of it all fills up her time
WITH WIZ religious ecstacy, prayer-meetings
has no time to look after her hus-
band. L wonder how it will all
straighten out when the great day
OF reckoning comes2 Do you remember
the devotee in the Wandering Jew?
Her type is all over the world. Women
with no Christ love in them, with no cap
aolllty Tor appreclating the good deeds
done when temptation surrounds some
poor mortal, and with no conception of
church except as means to the end
grauhcat1on OF their own vanity. / hate
such women. | wonder sometimes whether
they are women, and l feel like crying,
10 the guillotine with them
THESE ARCH HYPooRrrEsI
''These creatures who injure the cause of
loving Kindness, and the hearts of women
more than even the worst sinner has
done." There is woman here in New
York OF this type, and I'll tell you what
the result OF her behavior has been. Her
sons are known as ultra-fast men. Her
only daughter eloped with man of more
than questionable standing, and her hus-
band has special interest in handsome
bold-looking woman who drives in the
park every afternoon, as certainly as he
has in the carriage in which she sits. Oc-
casionally somebody expresses sympathy
for the wife. 1t is sympathy wasted.
Years ago, when these people were
younger and their children were little. the
wife went one day to some sort of a re.
ligious seance, and this taste. gave her
such an appetite for general meddling in
other peoples business that she gave her.
self up to saving the souls of the whole
world, and counted the people of her own
home OF no importance. She grew so
spiritual (O that her husband was driven
from her room in order that she might be
better able to pray at all hours of the
night or rise up and sing hymn or two.
A man may stand this for a little while.
but he won't for long. This one rebelled
for a time, and then gave in. But. of
course, he sought somebody who was less
interested in souls generally and more in
him personally. This woman found no
time to attend to her own children, she
was so interested in the heathens in Indias