The morning times., 1897-02-21

parties in America were assigned to Prof
| j. b. MCMaster, author of The History Of
| the People of the United States" The al
| ticle on coast defenSes of the United States
! was written by Gen. Miles. The navy was
assigned to the chief engineer and con
| structor, Capt. G. w Melville Arctic eX-
| ploration was dealt with by Gen. Greely.
| John sherman dealt with the debt OF the
United states, its coin and coinage, and the
| finances Cardinal Gibbons presented the
| story of the Catholic Church. Congress
| came from the pen of Speaker Thomas Is.
! Reed. Commissioner Wright dealt in a
| scholarly, statistical and practical manner
| with benefit societies, building and loan
| associations, labor organizations and kin
| dred matters. EX-Chicf of the Signal Ser
| vice Prof. Mark W. Harrington took the
| subject OF meteorology. Nor were Amer
| ica's national sports neglected "A. q. Spald-
ing. the father of American baseball, dealt
with the subject, which to him was an open
book. Walter Camp wrote of American
football b. A Macdonald, of American
Billiards. and the editor OF the American
Horseman detailed the annals of the Amer
lean horse.
In all, three millions Of dollars were spent
in editing alone. Add to this the cost of
issuing hundreds Of thousands Of sets OF
thirty volumes each, Cf advertising them,
of freighting them, and the other accumula-
tive III tnutiae, and the vast enterprises in
volvcd becomes approximately apparent.
Novel readers q re familiar with the name
of Amelia E. Barr, who has written many
good things besides her famous "A Bow of
Orange Ribbon and besides her recent
story in The Times. She has q record
which makes less energetic women stand
aside in awe. She has been the mot her OF
Sfourtecn children. has written thirty-two
novels has prepared a professor for Prince
ton College, and at sixty years Of age is
fresh anu bright. She still devotes nine
hours daily 10 her work, in spite of her a ge
Mrs. Barr attihuteS her vitality and good
spirits to her determination to be pldlos-
opher ana TO her system Of work. she re-
sides ut very pretty place called Cherry
Croft at Cornwall or hG -IIudSOn The quiet
country life she finds best suited TO her TEN.
perament when she hasa boo; on hand
she devotes all her time to it, and she never
writes at night; the early morning hours
find her up and at work. \ noon she lays
down her pen. for her work gives her
healthy appetite. Her daughter has taken
household cares off her mUther'S bands and
the story is told Of the visit OF a wellknown
dramatist to Mrs. Bars home. He was
worried over certain story of hcrShe was
pntting into stage form. aud in The midst
OF I serious discussion the door opened the
head of Mrs. Barr S daughter was intruded,
and voice asked.
What do YOU se-yanilla or lemon
extract in that puddiurp''
And Mrs Barr answered gently. 1T is
vanilla. my dear" and then Soothed the
enraged dramatiSt by telling him the
proper construction of dessert was quite
as important as deciding the next move
ment OF a character. Mrs. Barr was Il
famous cook in her day
After dining at noon Mrs. Barr sleeps two
hours, takes a cold plunge second of
the day-and then she carefully typewrites
her mornings work She never allows
any one 70 handle her manuscripts Late
in the afternoon comes tea. callers, and
pleasure, but no matter what IS going on.
Mrs Barr is off to bed at o'clock This
routine is carefully followed all the while
a book is being written and after the