Omaha daily bee., 1899-07-16
A HISTORIC AMERICAN.
Busy and Useful Career of the Late
Mrs. II. ID. u. n. Sonthworth.

period preceding the civil war-when to be
an abolitonist was almost as dangerous as
to be a runaway slave-was the author of
nearly 100 American novels the fret woman
to have serial story republished as novel,
and the first American woman invited to
England to assist in forming an international
copyright This distinguished and Interest
ing character, says NJ. L. Rayne in the
Chicago Times-Herald, was closely allied
with the picturesque past Of American pol
itiCs, and more slaves have been sheltered
| in the basement of her quaint home on the
Potomac river, in Georgetown than were
| even given free entertainment in any other
private house in the country. Her own chill
dren played with the little ones whose color
deprived them of a birthright aud / have
been in the house when it was filled with
the descendants OF slaves who lived there
rent free, covering the walls with the por-
traits of an alien race, receiving frequent
friendly letters from the owner of the home,
while they enjoyed the pleasing surround
ings which had inspired those novels which
were the delight of past generations, and
which more than any other novels of Amer
lean writer's give true history uf American
life as it existed then
Perhaps no other woman made both fame
and fortune without changing In any way
her manner of living and working for so
many years from pure love OF her literary
labor. For thirty years Mrs. Sonthworth
wrote for the New York Ledger, providing
that paper each year with a new novel that
ran as a serial through it's pages. When
THE Hidden Hand" the most dramatic of
her works, was published, Capitoia, the
heroine became the fad Of the nour, and in
London, where the play was dramatiGed, race
horses and babies were alike named for her
much to the authors surprise as well as
amusement.
So fond were the soldiers of Mrs. South
worth that at the close of the war it
customary for military men visiting Wash
| ington to go over to the Georgetown cot
tage and call on the writer, who did not,
| however, appreciate her popularity, and
would keep out of the way If possible. On
one occasion a party of soldiers were told
| by the colored housekeeper that Mrs. South
| worth was not in. They loitered about the
| place, looked over the cliff at the river view
| and finally approached a pain woman who
| was wedding in the yard, her face hidden
under sunbonnet.
"Do you think if we wait Mrs. Southworth
will be home soon?" asked one of the
soldiers, I'VE would like very much to see
her,"
''She isn't much to look at, but you can
Judge for yourself-I am Mrs. Southworth," ;"
was the pleasant reply, and she invited the
soldiers in and talked with them about their
experience in the war making notes that she
afterward used.
Her writing was all done on four days in
the week, the time being from noon until
midnight when she believed with the Ger
man metaphysicians the mehtaf vigor is
clearer and the physical force greater than at
any other time. No one ever ventured to
disturb her when she had once got the
| power" the only exceptions being remark
able sunset or the house on fire. Saturday
and Sunday she kept as holidays, declaring
| laughingly that whichever day was the
| genuine and authenticated Sabbath of the
| religionists she would be right, as she kept
| both. She believed in the capabinty of her
sex before the woman element had become a
| dominant power, and remarked once in con-
| versation: woman has more active cere-
! bellum than man. That can be seen when
| you watch girl Of no extraordinary capacity
| play piece of intricate music on the piano.
at the same time keeping up closely con-
| nected conversation"
Mrs. Southworth never admitted writing
her novels 'out Of her ,head." indeed it is
doubtful if any of the seventy-fve had
| an imaginary plot. She would read
| newspaper item Of some actual occurrence
that was amusing or pathetic, and out of
| that construct one part Of her story. Her
characters and incidents were reproductions
of facts, elaborated by descriptive writing
into many interesting pages, intersperse1
with brilliant satire, the word pictures that
entertained millions Of readers before the
| purpose novel had begun it's existence.
Sensational those stories doubtless were
but moral always, with no vague suggestion
of wickedness to pique a morbid and un-
hNy nItpin cit Arlo
woman, Mrs. Southworth wrote at first
to help herself and children live. and the
table upon which she earned with her pen her
first 500 is a favored object in the plainly
furnished Georgetown cottage, although 1t
could have been sold since then for many
hundreds of dollars to appreciative visitors
1t was on this stand that her first novel
"Retribution," was written. and unless she
has provided herself with desk OF her
own very recently all her work has been
accomplished on the old stand, with it's
one drawer and plain top, and on an old
fashioned portable folding desk of her
fathers, which had been her life COM
panion.
Mrs. Southwortn's library--on the occa-
sion of my visit at the cottage-consisted ed
OF her own books, bound cheaply and
kept in bookcase with glass doors, which
were securely locked to prevent admirers
from carrying them off as souvenirs Such
prolific writer could find but little time
for reading, but in her early youth she
had read much, and her wonderful memory
had been an equivalent for good library.
Tue domestic life of this exceptional
woman has been greatly blessed in later
years by the devotion Of son and daugh-
ter, with whom she spent many happy
years in protracted visits when the roman
tic nest on the banks of the river was
given over to household care-taker, when
the colored people she loved swarmed in
and out like happy children. The peculiar
arrangement of the initial letters Of her
four first names represent her own estimate
OF that humble Sweet home" which has
completely satisfied her modest ambition
E-D-E-N-to which formidable list her
marriage name added a fifth.
/ FriIIs of Fashion.
'IA .Al n.