The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-18
AN AMERICAN LITERARY TYPE.
Clever Sketch by Writer Which was
Evidently Drawn from Life.

Clever Sketch by a Writer Which was
Evidently Drawn from Life.
Literature.
At the age of twelve she had her first
poem published in a newspaper 1t made
her very happy and it gave her family great
hopes of her. Her mothers pastor advised
that she be kept from reading and sent
out to play as much as possible; but her
mother explained that the child would not
play and could not be kept from books.
Why, when she was only seven they found
her reading Romeo and Juliet; it was won
derful the way she loved Shakespeare. For
a few years the local papers published
verses of hers every week, and when the
fiftieth anniversary of the town was cee-
brated, though she was only sixteen, she
received an invitation to write the poem
and she was made the heroine of the day.
local paper and sent her poems to the maya
zines. AS they came back one by one she be-
came discouraged. At last she passionately
declared that she'd never write another
poem in her life. and she kept her resolu-
ton for three years Then her facorite dog
died and she wrote a few tender, sincere
lines about him; in fact the first sincere
lines she had ever done. She sent the verse
tc the Century, and it appeared in the
"Bric-a-Brac" department.
Shortly afterward she fell in love with
young man who came to town to visit col
ege classmate, though she had met him
only few times and had received no en-
enlargement from him. He was the first
man she had ever seen who resemDled her
idea of what young man ought TO be, ana
yearning; in fact, she never wholly forgot
him. This experience was great help to her
sufficiently to confide the story Of her love,
she expressed it in verses. some of which
she sold to the minor periodicals, generally
under an assumed name. One of the poems
was published in the weekly paper of a
nearby city, the editor of which sent her
the paper for year as payment. She be-
1.-The New Philosophy" of a woman be-
longing to the staff, and in few months
she had become one of The most enthusiast
tic disciples of Christian science She wrote
to the editor to express her thanks fer the
help the articles had given her, and she
was startled to see her letter i'll the next
issue of the paper and 10 lind one OF her
sentences serving as a text for the weekly
discourse. The sentence was: 1T seems
to me now as l look back on ny life that
every trouble that has come INTO it has
helped me in some way. The writer made
a great deal of this remark, pcintirg out
that only through suffering co.lld We look
for 1.-THE development Of the inner Vision"
When she was thirty her father died, and
a few months later she lost her mother.
lived comfortably in the village vita her
friends: but she dreaded the old associa-
tions and she longed for broader life: So
she went to New York and lived in n cheap
boarding house in Harlem and passed her
afternoons in the libraries reading Emerson
and the, Stole philosophers. One morning
she received letter from home saying that
the city lawyer who invested her money had
absconded. She was surprised that she did
not care more, Sne would nave 10 earn Her
living now like those busy young women
at her boarding house who left home so
early in the morning and did not return till
night. She told one of them, typewriter,
about her misfortune. The girl, who Lad
seen some of her verses. asker why she
didn't try to get some work on a newspaper
or to write for the magazines. The rext day
she went from newspaper office TO newspa-
per office, but every editor that she saw
said he didn't like TO employ women-there
were so many things they couldn't do Two
asked her If she could turn in any society
news, and when she said she didn't know
any society people they seemed to think
she was hopeless. That night she told the
typewriter about her experience and the