The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-10-28
MISS AGNES RBPPLHR SISSON -q~HROCKM0RqON
A Woman With an Interesting
Literary Career-To Speak
at Jersey City.


Miss Agnes Repplier, who is to lecture
on .'The New Woman; Her Remote Ans
tiqnity.' at the Jersey City meeting Of
Women's Clubs of the State Federation,
is in a comparatively new field, but her
rencwn as ar essayist has become widely
known throughout this country, and her
published books find many friends IN
london. Though born in Philadelphia and
of French descent, the Newark Sunday
Calf says, Miss Repplier found recog-
milton in magazine work first in New
York and Boston. The Catholic World"
published a few short sketches, legends
and stories. but 1t was left to Thomas
Bailey Aldrich, editor of the atlantic
Monthly" to appreciate the true worth
of the essay writing of Miss Repplier,
who has managed to please the busy
public of today.
In earliest childhood Miss Repplier dis
played a passionate love for good litera-
ture, and when set to the task of busting
the parlor was always found hours later
curled UP on the floor near a console la
Bile where a pile of books-Wordsworth,
Moore, Scott and Bryon-were kept, n
so deeply lost in the pages of the Cor
sair," or "Mazeppa," or 1.-THE Lady of the
Lake" that all thoughts of household
duties had fed. In her essay upon the
"Children's Poets,'' Miss Repplier says:
Perhaps Bryon is not considered whole
some reading for little girls in these care
full days, when expurgated editions of
the Vicar of Wakefield n Paul n
Virginia find favor in our nurseries. On
this score / have no defense to offer, and
/ I'M mt nraca.n-t1. H. :. -
text book for early youth, but having
never been told that there was such a
thing as forbidden fruit in literature. I
was spared at least that alert curiosity
concerning ii, which is one of the most
unpleasant results of our present guarded
system"
The childhood and education of Miss
Repplier must have been particularly hap
by and pleasant, though she did have such
Infinite fluctuations learning to read after
the approved old fashioned methods that
the reader beginning with the bold state
ment Ann had a cat, and ending with
q Woeful tale about an African boy named
SAM became an object of hatred. Miss
Repplier being of the Catholic faith spent
me first years of study with the Sisters
Of une sacred Heart in their convent
school at Torresdale, near Philadelphia,
put afterward finished her school life at
Miss Twins private academy in Phila-
deiphia.
and has been received in the foremost
literary circles, but her education is not
yet finished, but is constantly being added
10 by the broad sympathetic spirit Of the
woman ana contact with the outer world,
IL was not her misfortune to spring at
once into popular favor, but by slow de-
grees was the public aroused to the fact
| that she had something to saw of Interest
on old subjects and knew how to saw #
without being commonplace. Miss Rep
pier seems to possess a most sympathetic
chord in her nature toward children, and
has written TO them and of her childish
pleasures most pleasingly. Her evident
dislike for the child made to pose before
The public is manifest in an essay on
'Children in Fiction"
On of the latest types. however, r.
seize and hold the hearts of the big sen.
fimental ehild-loving public, IS Mrs
Burnetts Lord Fauntleroy, who may
with the clothes. 1t is quite Impossible
TO separate him in our mind from hi
wardrobe. He is always and in all place.
q small copy OF the fairy prince, pic
pony; We cannot be coarse enough t
imagine him with cropped hair ant
muddy boots and a torn jacket, and
hoie IN his stocking, like so many rea
little boys, who daily break their mother,
hearts by their profound neglect of charm
Ing compliments to pretty young adies
Instead of h~ustling into corners and star
ing owlishly, after the fashion of thos,
awkward little boys / know. And he il
so very, very good Miss Reptile ais,
believes in allowing children to hay,
plenty of stories and books in the nur
sery,. and makes many an excellent poin
on the subject in her Protest Agains
Nursery Lore"
To anyone fond of the household cat
Miss Repplier will be found as sym
pathetic in pen pictures as Henriett,
Ronner is with her brush and canvas
The cat Is described as a favorite, ant
named A%grippina, as a graceful littl,
body curled up in a ball and wrapped
round with her tail like a parcel, O
stretched out luxuriously on my bed, on.
paw coyly covering her face, the othe-
curved gently inward, as though claspin,
an invisible treasure" Then again sh,
calls them "the sphinx of the hearth
stone, the little god of domesticity, who's.
presence turns a house into a home.
Besides numerous sketches, Miss Reptile
has published volumes of essays Book,
and Men, Points of View Essays ii
Idleness" and Essays in Miniature i
book called Famous Verse" a collection
OF English and American poems for youn,
people, proved SO popular that severa
editions have been issued.
Miss Repplfer's style Is clever and witty
while her command of language is mar
Vicious, though never verbose.