The San Francisco call., 1897-07-25
A TRIBUTE TO MRS. OLIPHANT.

The London literary columns are filled with
tributes to Mrs. Ohphant The following ex-
tract from the London Times is perhaps the
most graceful and interesting:
No woman, and perhaps no writer of
either sex, has been so long and so in timately
associated with the literature OF the Vic
torian era. From the day when her genius
first surprised and delighted the public-the
field was far more open then than now-she
has been pressing forward unobtrusively in
the foremost ranks and steadily widening the
circles of admiTing readers. "Circles," we
say, because the range of her talent was broad
By turns she WAS the novelist and the his
torian, the biographer, the critic and the poet.
"Unobtrusiyely," we say, because her head
was never turned by her successes and her
unaffected simplicity and modesty was her
greatest personal charm.
Many years ago, for her modesty contended
with her hospitality, she was persuaded into
giving bir thday garden party on Magma
Charta Island, to which all the habitual con-
tributors to "Msga" were bidden. Among
those who assembi ed to do her honor were
Kinglake and Hanley, Mr. Blsckmore and Sir
Theodore Martin, Henry Reeve, Colonel Lau-
renee Lockhart and very many others. John
Blackwood rose to propose, in an admirable
speech, the health of the hostess.
She had kept herself characteristically in
the background, and was only induced to say
a few graceful words in acknowledgment. But
Blackwood's speech, delivered frankly from
long and close personal knowledge, made a
profound impression on the hearers who were
interes ted in literary methods. Inevitably
every one was reminded of the miracles of the
author of ''Waveriy." For the speaker said
that, often as he had the pleasure of enter
tainlng Mrs. O.iphant in Edinburgh at
strathtyrum, he had never yet discovered how
or when she did her writing.
There was the illustration OF her rare facility
and the secret of her sustained successes.
Ike Scott, she was indifferent to the hyper
refinements OF style. To use the file and the
sandpaper, to the CONSERVATION of the print
ers, like friend Kingla8e, would have been in
tolerable drudgery. Yet style she has, and a
style of the best. 1t breathes the freshness of
the sea winds, Of the hills, the fields and the
heather, and the unsullied purity of tranquil
and orderly households, where the passing
gales that blow up in domestic troubles have
none of the taint of pruriency and corruption.
Yet we are ungrateful enough TO grudge her
departure, for until the other day neither the
lndomitable energy nor the fine fancy had
failed She was still busy over the annals Of
the Blackwoods, which involved labor. re-
search and careful drudgery. To Black
wood for June she contributed the leading
article, Its sixty I ears SINCE sparkling
retrospect OF the sixty years reign-and the
finale of the following numb Der is "The 22d
june" an animated lyric of triumph and
congratulation on the Diamond Jubilee of the
lazy to whom she was devoted.
To the last she remained leagues removed
from the "new woman" who sells her books
in multiplicity of editions by creating scan-
dal or sensation. To the last she did sound
work and indefatigable work, and varied
WORK, and brilliant work; the mass OF her
writing in volumes and magazines is simply
stupendous. She began TO write for Black
wood in 1852, and since then few numbers
have appeared in which she had not q story or
an article-very frequently both. She may
wei have felt then that her work was done
and that now she might murmur in peace and
content her Nunc Dimittis.
But scarcely more than q month ago cOu-
Die of her stories were published By Messrs
smith & Elder. Foreseeing nothing we were
struck by the consensus of discriminating
praise with which they were received by all
sorts of critics. All agreed that the material
was of the slightest; all added that the au thor
had never been more gracefully ingenious and
that the sober interest throughout was sus-
tanned at the highest pitch.
Rudyard Kipling's American novel, "Cap-
tains Courageous" will be published by the
Century Company in October.