The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-11-18


influence should be felt and not recog-
) nized, that they should hear and see
but neither appear nor speak. All this
l has fled
: Within the past few years a renewed
interest has been awakened among the
Catholic women of the United States in
literature, philosophy, science and art
This paper treats purely on the Cath
Ole women Of the United States in lit
erature and journalism. The list Of fe-
male writer's is not overwhelming. We
have four noyelists of whom we may
be justly proud, Mrs. Frances Fisher
Herman, better known as Christian
Reid, Mrs. Mary Agnes Fleming, Mrs.
Anna Hanson Dorsey and Mary j. Hoff-
man. Twenty most fascinating novels
besides other eminent literary work
have come from the pen of Christian
Reid. Mrs. Fleming follows with twenty
novels. Mrs. Dorsey, convert since
1910, is the author of fifteen novels, and
Miss Hoffman has issued about SIX
Among the poets we find NJ IS Il ed.o
G. Donnelly, who was born in PhlladeI-
phia. She is the sister of Ignatius Don
nelly, the we'll known novelist and
statesman. Her pen was dedicated from
youth to religious subjects, and while
she has written much, very few of her
poems have other than religious
themes. Her verse is full of music and
rich in it's devotional dIgnities.
She published three volumes of poems
which are in demand. especially as
! prize books in fine educational institu-
tons. Leo XIII has sent her special
benediction, and one of the religious
orders in Rome conferred upon her
medallion in recognition of the beauty
| and purity of her verse.
| There are also women of great worth,
though not widely known. Mrs. NJ. v.
Dahlgren, an Ohio woman, who has
published several original works and
TRANSACTIONS. Mrs. Ketchum, a southern
! lady, has for years contributed to Har-
per's and other magazines, and has
published volume of poems CALLED
''Lotos Flowers" Mrs Sadler and her
! two daughters, Anna and Agnes, have
written poetry and many translat1ons.
! Agnes Repplier, so we'll known IN
! Points of View Books and Men"
and her latest work, Essays in Nina
| ture." Harriet Waters Preston con-
| tributes to the Atlantic Monthly. Rose
Hawthorne Lathrop (convert, daugh-
ter of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Sarah
| Bronson, daughter of the distinguished
| convert Orestes Bronson. Maud Howe
Elliott (convert); Isabella Shea, daugh-
ter of John Gilmory Shea; Mary j.
Onahan; Mother Mary Austin Carroll;
Mary c. Crowley, Edith Healy, Eleanor
Sherman Thackara. Mary McMullen
and Katherine Prfndiville.
In Boston. the Athens of America, we
find trinity of women the whole Cath
Ollie world may look to with the utmost
pride. Let us review the life of
MRS. MARY ELIZABETH BLAKE.
Mary McGrath was born in Dungar-
win, Ireland, in 1910. When but years
old she came with her parents to this
country Most of her early education
was received at home her father being
a scholarly and well read man. she
afterward attended she Quincy high
school, George B. Emerson private
school OF Boston, and finally spent some
years with the ladies of the Sacred
Heart at Manhattanville, studying
music and the languages.
In 1865 she married DR.. John g.
Blake, a prominent physician of Bos-
ton. She is the mother of eleven chill
dren, five of whom are still living-four
sons and one daughter.
She wrote poetry at an early age, and
while in her teens contributed sketches
to the Boston Pilot over the name OF
Marie" Her soulful poems attracted
much attention, and the editor of the
Boston Gazette secured her fascinating
pen for that paper. Rambling Talks"
written for the Boston Journal, still !
continues to be an immense success; in |
fact, it is one of the most popular ia |
lures of the paper.
Mrs. Blake is pre-eminently poet /
with a sweet voice which breathes the |
incense of her pure and lofty character. /
Her Wide Awake poems you have
all read. and must certainly have en-
joyed. They are perhaps more widely
known because of the extensive sale
of the magazine. But like so many
grand poems her works were brought (
out by the greatest grief that stirs the
heart-the loss of three beautiful chill
dren within one week. This cluster of
poems is called 'In Sorrow" and the
tears of bereaved mothers whose hearts
have yearned to the author through fell
lowship of desolation is their all-suffer-
ing eulogy. One of the cluster is es-
pecially beautiful.
BY special request from the city of
Boston she wrote the poem, Wendell
Phillips" in 1884 How Ireland An J
swered' and Women of the Revolu-
Iion," both in 1885, reveal the splendid
force and strength of the writer. She
was the poet of the golden jubilee eel
ebration of the Sisters of Charity in
1882, and of the Catholic Unions festi-
val in honor of Pope Plus TX in 1873.
Mrs. Blake'S prose is clear and pic
.uresQue. She is a contributor both
If prose and poetry to the New York
Catholic World, Ladies'
Home Journal, Wide Awake, st. Mich
,las. Providence Journal, Chicago Her {
I'D and other publications. Her pub
ished works include, Poems in 1882,
On the Wing in 1888. The Merry
donths All'' in 1885, Youth in Twelve
Centuries" in 1856, and Mexico, which
he wrote in conjunction with Mrs.
Margaret F. Sullivan of Chicago, of
whom she says she has the honor TO
,e her devoted friend.
We now turn to one whose name is !
lmost a household word in the New I
England states
MISS KATHERINE E. CONWAY.
She was born in Rochester, N Y, of Z
IRISH parents. Her father was bridge
uilder and railroad contractor; he. also
ook a great interest in politics Her
lother was an educated woman, and l
childhood was spent within =
specially good influences. and placed :
Il a way of knowing inteliigently the :
rend of public affairs. She studied in
'uffalo with the Sisters of Charity. Her .
rst public work was done when she
Tas is years old. She did reportorial {
'ork, verses and sketches for the Roch- r
ster Daily Unien, and correspondence !
Or the New York papers, but all this \
yas more in the line of instructive out =
eaching than the expression of any :
Ian or purpose. From 1873 to 1878 she =
dited a Catholic Magazine called West 7
md Journal. Family reyerses occur =
ing she was thrown on her own re- :,
Ources and her ready pen became a !.
PURGE of revenue. She taught rhetoric 6
nd literature in the Normal School of y
Iazareth Convent in Rochester. From 9
S7S until 1888 she was assistant editor 4