The record-union., 1899-03-21
PRODIGY IN BOSTON.
Girl Of Fifteen Writes Stories and
Poetry,

Zangwill has written Children of the
Ghetto" and "Dreamers of the Ghet-
to-" and now Boston has a child and a
dreamer from the Ghetto of Russia,
who promises at 10 to rival Zangwil1
and all Hebrews who have written in
English. This child, with her mother,
left the center of Russia at IL to fol-
low the father to America
The story of that trip, with all it's
sufferings and pain, this little girl,
Mary Antin by name. wrote in Yiddish
as soon as she arrived in this country,
and before she knew word of English.
Two years later she translated it into
the language of her new country, and
to-day, at Is, the story of this trip
has been published.
Within the last month Clarke & Co.
of Boston, have put forth a. book, which
from standpoint of literature eco
non1ic and historic, bids fair to tell
more than it's outside predicts. Upon
the modest cover is the title From
Plotzk to Boston, by Mary Antin, with
a Foreword by Israel Zangwill.'
Mary Antin is small even for Is years.
delicate, with rather sharp features,
and eyes that are large and piercing.
She looks like anything but the author
of book and writer of many yet un-
published poems. She is poor in worldly
goods at least, but rich in all the quail
tiles that win develop into a noble We
man and a great writer.
Plotzk, her native village is in the
west central part of Russia. The town
is Hebrew, in the pale of Russia. out
ct - ;ol, L T01,.~
inside Of which their life is made mis-
erable as only Russian authorities seem
to know how to make it. When she
was 8 years old her father was lured
by the tales of ease and wealth in
America to leave his home and go
abroad to prepare another home for his
wife and four small children.
After three weary years of waiting
he sent for his family, and it is the
child's story of this journey from Rus
sia to the land Nof freedom upon which
Zangwi1l has set the stamp of approval.
The opportunity to launch her work
was given Mary Antin by Mrs. Hecht
of Commonwealth avenue, Boston.
whose philanthropic work is so we'll
known all over the country.
Four years ago Mary Antin knew no
language but Yiddish; to-day she has
so far advanced that she is with the
students of her age in the first year
of the Boston Latin school.
Zangwill says in his introduction:
1t is thus human docu-
ment of considerable value, as we'll as
a promissory note of future perform
ance The quick sense of the child, her
keen powers of observation and intro
spection, her impressionability, both of
sensations and complex emotions-these
are the very things out Of which litera-
ture is made, the raw stuff of art.
Just one extract from her book-the
only one which our limited space al
lows us-will give some idea of the
beauty and poetry in Mary Antin's
writings. The passage referring to the
impression produced upon her is too
long to give in full, but a part of it
shows so much more feeling than an
American city can give one born and
bred therein that it must strike all as
strange:
1.-THE ocean spoke to me in other be-.
side mournful or angry tones. loved
came soothing I could hear sweet,
gentle accent that reached my soul
rather than my ear. Perhaps l inag-
ined it, do not know. What was real
and what was imaginary blended in
one. But heard it and felt it, and at
such moments I wished I could live on
the sea forever, and thought that the
sight Of land would be unwelcome to
me- I did not want to be near any
person. Alone with the ocean forever
that was my wish"
Meanwhile this little Russian Hebrew
at Is is living in a poor little tenement
on Dover street. Poverty is her lot,
yet she goes daily to her school, to her
music lessons, and in her quiet mo-
ments curls up in a corner with her IA
vorite authors or strives herself to lit
her thoughts to metre. In her there
is promise of a great fortune. Hope all
ways rules in her heart, hope that just
as she broke away from the darkness
of Russia to the light of liberty. SO may
she leap from poverty to wealth.-New
York Herald
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The sale of a seat on the New York