The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-02-07
Woman sWorId
A POLITICAL WRITER.
Mrs. Mac Gahan Is Reporter for a
Russian Paper.
MAKES HER HOME IN NEW YORK
With Her Husband She Was War
Correspondent in Russo-Turk-
ish Struggle. s.
MAKES HER HOME IN NEW YORK

Living quietly in New York-so quietly that
| she is not even member Of woman's club
Is woman who fills the important post OF
political correspondent in the United States
for leading Russian journal. The journal
| is the Moskovskya Viedomosti, the lady Mrs.
Barbara MacGahan, widow of the war CORE
spondent, J. A. MacGahan.
At the close of the Franco Prussian war
MacGahan, who had been with the French
! army as reporter for the New York Herald,
went to the Crimea for breathing spell.
There he mingled in society and met many
Russians Of the upper class. There, too, he
met his fate in a young lady of noble family
who had come, with her relatives, from their
home near Moscow for the autumn.
Il never learned much from books" she
remarks Of herself. Il don't think so much
of book education anyhow. 1t makes girls
! priggish. They tried to ,civilize me. but
couldn't don't care for civilization. 1t
makes people too uniform. Those who are
afraid to be different from other people are
not interesting. Wherever one be an in.
6ividual there is liberty"
TO be commended to American women Is
her comment on them socially:
Il find American women often not quite
sure OF themselves in society, and they are
| afraid of doing something unconventional.
| But after they know they are in the first rank
| socially they throw off their stiffness and are
| as charming, as lively and as individual as
can be- .r
| Mrs. MacGahan herself is las individual as
can be- In this pleasant way, consequently
| wholly charming. She finds that American
women who have thrown off their social
| stiffness are like Russian ladies'.
| The Russian bride OF the American CORE
| spondent went to the wars with her husband.
At the time Of the rebellion in Spain he was
| in the mountains with the army of-Don Car
los; she was at Biarritz
| Every one Of MacGahan'S latters nod RI
be turned into French by his wife and then
cabled to New York, where they were rem
| dered back into English before publication
After Mrs. MacGahan translated her hus-
bands war dispatches she accustomed to
| prepare a summary in Russian and tele-
| graph it to the st. Petersburg Gclos. Thus
she became a war correspondent by proxy
wars and more war-the Russo Turkish
struggle began in 1877 and to the front went
MacGahan, his brilliant young Russian wife
WITH him, camping out, associatng With
the war correspondents of all nations, learn
ing, enjoying, suffering. but never whining
What an education it was or the girl! No
wonder the woman does not think too hishlv
of book learning r..
But | saw none of the glory and excite
ment OF war; said she. Il was in the
rear, where | saw all the suffering, the
| wounded. the sick, the dying"
Among these helping all she could Mrs
MacGahan worked. At last came the thuu-
derDolt that shattered even such domestic
life as she had enjoyed. Her famous young
husband was stricken with black typhus be-
fore Constantinople and died
Mrs. MacGahan was already a fuIl-hedg I'd
newspaper writer. and successful one. The
ST. Petersburg Coles sent for her at once
and made her its foreign exchange editor
She filled this post till 1880. Then the paper
sent her to the United States to report the
GARFIELD campaign and here she has been
most of the time since. Her soE, now fine
young man, is an electrical engineer and an
Americal citizen. Z. s.'..
The name Golos means words and the
words OF the Golos became presently too hoc
for the Russian government, which accord
lngly suppressed them and it. Another Jour
nal then secured Mrs. MacGahan's services
She reports for her paper economic, social
and political movements in the United States
Ihese matters interest her more than any
| others. Linguist, writer, traveller and OBJ
| server, she understands herself ana others
Keen eyed, critical and logical, she watches
| our public events, and her brilliant Russian
! intellect catches the undertow in American
politics and society. D..