The Washington times., 1901-07-14
What He Thought Of Us.
Women FOnnd n Friend in Sir wal
ter Besant's Pen.


Sir Walter Besant was a friend of
woman-modern. educated, bread-winning
woman-as well as a novelist of note
and an admirer of Americans. For
! several years, and UP to few
months ago. he wrote n weekly arti-
Gle for the Queen" in which he ex-
pressed his views on pEany subjects and
exposed the shams and injustices of va
rious kinds that came within his ken
Persons who advertised for poor gentle
women to do extraordinary work for ex-
traordinarily little pay. begging-Ietter
writer's, frauds, and imposters of all
kinds were held up to seOrn and pub
licity in Sir Walters weekly column 1t
was all done in his own calm, unimpas-
stoned. measured way. No scathing or
scolding, merely concise statements of
facts, already sifted and verified and pre-
sented with irresistible logic and sim
plicity.
Those weekly talks were full of keen
observation and bright glimpses of books
and travel, as well as expositions OF I'M
postures and hypocrisy.
One OF Sir Walters American ideas was
that the girls of family were entitled to
more consideration and foresight on the
part of their parents than the boys. The
SA0 AANo "a eAf2A5 lAit ciOrSt sun tIt llUu
share (Which accounts for the numbers Of
poor gentlewomen in England whose
elder brothers are not obliged to work,
although their sisters struggle along as
governesses, etc). was a worn-out con-
vention TO Sir Walter. He wrote cease
lessly on the subject of ''endoWing the
daughter by purchasing life insurance
policies when she was young and putting
aside so much each year for her. so that
when her gOvernessing or teaching days
were over she would not be forced to live
on charity or die of starvation. In one Of
these pleas for the endowment of the
daughter he said he had received several
letters from parents who did not seem to
like the idea Of depriving themselves Of
even a few shilltnss month in order 10
insure the daughters independence when
too old or too worn out TO work. One OF
these correspondents said: DO you pTac-
tice what you preach? Have you done for
your daughters what you want others to
do?' And Sir Walter answered simply:
Il have"
One day last autumn he found list of
lucky stones" Women were advised not
TO wear tiaras of pearls (Which Sir Wal
ter found hard to believe could be IN
lucky and everyone was adjured to wear
moonstOne if he would have good for
tune. The novelist hOped-in brackets
that moonstones being SO necessary,
were not very expensive His article
was whimsical and amusing and one Of
his regular readers in New York wrote
sion he had afforded her and sent him a
moonstOne, adding. by way of a joke,
that he had omitted to tell his English
readers that the stone was also a sym
Dol of happy marriage. In a short time
the frivolous New Yorker received the fol-
lowing gracious letter from the novelist:
''Frognal End, Hampstead. N. W.
January % 1901.
Dear Madam-I beg 10 acknowledge,
with many thanks, your letter of the 5th
which only reached me yesterday | am
like all literary men, for whom the fiat
tery cannot be laid on too thick. At the
same time l am really glad to know that
my weekly talks have made friends for
me across the Atlantic.
I have also received the nyOnstone.
which shall certainly regard as a lucky
stone. and since it is a symbol OF a happy
/ shall have ii put into a ring
and give II TO my wife. We had our sill
yer wedding two years ago. and we have
four children grown up, so that il has
been happy marriage. and your moon
stone shall be symbol OF unturned hap
plness to the appointed end
I remain, dear madam. with best
wishes for your own happiness. very
yours.
WALTER RESANT"