The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1900-07-27

( = 49, ~ - ''ed 'e~~y |s'sSo'sSS> WV
manner, in which, nevertheless, q
tremor of timidity and anxiety was all
too evident.
Lo, she was southerner! There
was no mistaking that gentle drawl on
the vowels and suppression Of the con-
sonants. shall not try to reproduce
the popularity of her speech. The
written letters cannot convey what it
was except as you know it already.
and they seem to coarsen it.
She had manuscript with her that
she hoped might be adapted to the col
umns of The Evening Appeal; she al
ways enjoyed The Appeal SO very
much.
Her manuscript was. devoted to pic
turing details Of life on a southern
plantation in the autumn. She had
tried to make it timely; she had heard
that that was desirable for daily pa
pers. 1t was not about the far south,
but told of things as they might be in
Tennessee or Kentucky-the sorghum
pressing and sweet potato digging and
hog killing.
"Oh, know 1t all SO WELL" broke
forth.
"You2 Do you? Why, my dear
child, are you from the south2"
When she found was from Tennes-
see and that my name was Addington.
we were straightway launched on a
tide Of interchange and reminiscence.
was not surprised to find we knew
all about each others family. had
dimly supposed we did when heard
her speak. All southerners do know or
know of all the rest, and l had been
given Of late years rather to escaping
than seeking those kindly intimacies
they establish as matter of course
when they meet away from home. The
exigencies of life had forced me to ap-
preciate them more in the abstract
than In the concrete.
But only brute could have withheld
cordial response from this little gen.
tlewoman, and, moreover, her name
stood for a good deal to my imagina-
ton. 1t was. she told me, Fanny
Marchbanks Overman.
| suppose she had been Mrs. Over
man nearly 40 years; but. being a
southerner, she was still to herself and
her friends Fanny Marcbbanks as well.
| The Marchbanks part was what In
| terested me. My grandfather's most
intimate friend and his partner for
many years had been Judge March,
banks, and even In my half foreign
bringing up had learned the tradi-
| - <f.nk al {<xSc l1u Ikxx
and shrewdness and eccentricity. |
had heard. too. of his daughter-had
| heard of her as the brilliant young
belle who had been my mothers child
| ish ideal of beauty-and now, after all
these years and generations and up
heavals, here were Fanny Marchbanks
and meeting In the Office of the New
York Evening Appeal, and she was a
poor old woman wanting to sell an un-
marketable manuscript.
That manuscript The thought of 1t
fell upon me like a pail. The worst
was her confidence in me, in my ao-
ceptance of 1t. had been stealing
glances at 1t while she told me what a
polished gentleman" my grandfather
was and how smooth my mother wore
| her hair when she was a little girl
/ saw 1t would be as much as my po-
sition was worth to hand 1t to the man.
aging editor.
| l asked her If she had been doing
much writing In New York.
Yes. she had been writing here for a
year and half She had written some
stories for one of the dying. old fashion
ed magazines: she had had a southern
sketch in good weekly; she had sent
some letters to her church paper In the
south: she had even had some negro
anecdotes published IN one Of the
"comic" Journals.
could guess what that dear. simple,
glrllike old thing had gone through
the struggle and the poverty and the
heart stra.nIng anxiety II had cost to
achieve this much. Now she wanted
to do more. She wanted to get into
other lines Of writing, and she thought